Who Is Jimothy? The Story of Seattle's Viral Raccoon

A short, round-backed raccoon has spent the back half of this summer trundling along fence tops and porch railings near NW 50th Street in Ballard, and once people see him they tend to remember him. His body curves into an unmistakable hump behind the shoulders, giving him a gait that looks more like a shuffle than the usual raccoon lope, and that one detail turned an ordinary backyard visitor into the most photographed animal in Seattle.

The nickname came from the internet, not from City Hall. A short video posted to Instagram in late July showed him ambling across a yard, and commenters settled on "Jimothy" within days. The clip did not stay local for long. By August, Jimothy had been picked up by ABC News, by Fox affiliates from Minneapolis to Phoenix, and by local stations including KOMO, KIRO 7 and MyNorthwest, all running some version of the same headline: who is this raccoon, and what is wrong with him.

A veterinarian who reviewed the footage pointed to short spine syndrome, a rare congenital condition that has been documented in a handful of other mammals and that would explain the compressed, rounded build. That diagnosis has never been confirmed directly. Nobody has caught or examined Jimothy, and the vet's read is based entirely on video, not an exam.

Seattle leaned into it anyway. Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Dan Strauss proclaimed the 2026 season "Jimothy Summer", and hundreds of people showed up to Bergen Place Park in Ballard on July 26 to mark it. Governor Bob Ferguson later named him the state's "Washingtonian of the Day." Jimothy himself seems unbothered by any of it. A video from early October placed him well north of Ballard, in a different North Seattle neighborhood, climbing a fence between two houses before settling on a roof.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's own raccoon guidance has not changed just because this one has a fan base: leave him alone, keep pets and food sources away from him, and do not try to feed or approach him, even for a better photo. The department's wider living-with-wildlife guidance applies just as much to a local celebrity as to any other raccoon working its way through a Ballard yard. Whatever is actually going on with his spine, Jimothy is getting through the summer better than most of the people trying to photograph him.

Photos of Jimothy the Raccoon

We're collecting everything the internet has made around Jimothy here: real photos, fan art, merch, and handmade tributes from people who've never even seen him in person.

Real Photos

Illustrations

T-Shirt Designs

Handmade Creations