Adorable dog with same rare condition as beloved raccoon Jimothy finds newfound fame
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: instagram/c1vrgr1
Jimothy the racoon is many things: a viral superstar, a short king, and (most importantly) adorable.
His condition, known as short spine syndrome, is very rare. It's usually found in dogs and there's reportedly only 150 pooches on record with it.
Nobody had heard of Jimothy until two weeks ago when a video went viral of the tiny animal roaming around the streets of Seattle.
There's obviously millions of racoons across the States, but what makes Jimothy special is that his unique condition makes it look like he has no neck.
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Kiana Hall is the one who capture the clip of Jimothy that helped him find his worldwide fame.
Recalling the day she first saw him, Kiana told ABC7: "I would say that I was seeing some kind of grey, fluffy creature that was shaped sort of like an orb with really long legs."
"[It] almost looked to me like a monkey or a lemur," she added.
It was actually Kiana who gave the racoon the name Jimothy. She told ABC7: "We just saw him and thought, 'He looks like a Jimothy'."
And it turns out that Jimothy isn't the only viral star with short spine syndrome, there's a charming dog named Cooper that had the same condition.
Cooper, an American Foxhound, has his very own Facebook page with 87,000 followers on it.
The sweet pooch was a rescue and went on to adopted by his owners after they fell in love with him while fostering him.
Cooper has found himself gaining some new followers in the wake of Jimothy's stardom and took to Facebook yesterday to reintroduce himself.
"Thanks to our newly discovered friend, Jimothy we’ve gained some new friends. Let me re-introduce myself," the post read.
"My name is Cooper, I have short spine syndrome, just like Jimothy. I am a 9.5 year old American Foxhound and was rescued in Virginia as a baby."
Cooper went on to say that he's 'healthy and happy and other than some limited mobility and odd anatomy, I live a normal dog life'.
The post concluded: "Short Spine syndrome is adorable and I am adorable, but my goal isn’t more short spine animals.
"My goal is awareness, to know that we live normal lives - if we are born we don’t need to be euthanized. I am a normal family pup.
"Just like Jimothy is living a good raccoon life, he doesn’t need rescuing - we can admire, but he’s happy in his natural environment.
"We short spiners are very entertaining, so stick around to see all of my antics!"