Have You Seen This? Meet Jimothy, the Seattle raccoon who is taking over the internet

THE EMERALD CITY — In case you haven't been on social media in the past week, allow me to introduce you to Jimothy, a raccoon from the Seattle area who has quickly become the talk of the town online.

Thanks to his small body and unique walk — likely the result of a rare genetic condition called short spine syndrome — Jimothy's star rose rapidly, carrying the small raccoon from a local celebrity to a global phenom.

The raccoon was dubbed Jimothy by Seattle resident Kiana Hall, who saw him while on an evening walk last week in the city's Ballard neighborhood.

"What am I looking at?" she asked in a video posted to Instagram, before saying she had been "graced with the presence of Jimothy."

She later told Today: "He just looked like a 'Jimothy' to me."

The name stuck, and Jimothy was quickly venerated by a mural in his hometown and an 8-bit video game where players help the raccoon break into trash cans and climb trees.

During a Saturday home game, the Seattle Mariners featured a "make noise for Jimothy" graphic on the scoreboard and debuted a Jimothy mascot who competed in — and won — the team's salmon race in the middle of the fourth inning.

Jimothy spotted at batting practice @TMobileParkpic.twitter.com/yXzSzJlzuI

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) July 18, 2026

Jimothy even made an appearance on The Daily Show, where host Jon Stewart on Monday asked: "Is that a raccoon or an ottoman?"

"But I'll tell you what I think Jimothy is: a short king," he added.

Have You Seen This?

Have You Seen This? Mountain biker rock-hops '(almost) impossible hill'

Running up a mountain and biking up a mountain are not only two very different skill sets, but they require a whole other set of muscles, and much larger levels of lung capacity.

Related topics