Jimothy isn’t the only one: Meet pets with short spine syndrome
Jimothy the raccoon’s rise to fame has put the spotlight on pets with short spine syndrome.
Jimothy the racoon may be the latest viral sensation, but he’s far from alone. Across the country, dogs and cats with short spine syndrome are capturing hearts online.
Cooper, a 9-year-old American fox hound based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, is a normal family dog. Today, he enjoys receiving pets from his human siblings, running around a grassy yard and standing outside during a blizzard. But for years after he was found as a stray, he went unadopted.
Like Jimothy, Cooper has short spine syndrome, a rare congenital condition in which an animal’s vertebrate doesn’t develop into bone during fetal development. Animals with the birth defect, which results in a shorter spine, have gained popularity in recent weeks due to the virality of Jimothy. The wild, Seattle-based creature has inspired murals, bobbleheads and even video game characters due to his stumpy size.
Though short spine syndrome can be present in several species, from raccoons to domesticated cats, the condition is most common in dogs. Cooper’s owner, Elly Keegan, said that although the senior canine requires some special accommodations at home, he lives a normal, healthy life.
Jimothy may be stealing hearts for now – but there are countless social media stars like Cooper who continue to spread awareness about the rare condition.
Form abandoned to social media stars
Keegan and her family adopted Cooper about seven years ago after he was found as a stray in Virginia. Keegan said Cooper was transferred from Virginia to Minnesota to be close to another dog with short spine syndrome, Quasimodo − known to this 660,000 Facebook followers as Quasi the Great.
At the time, Keegan was volunteering at a local animal rescue and took Cooper in as a foster.
“We actually had him up for adoption for a very, very long time and nobody was interested,” Keegan said. “There was not enough awareness about short spine syndrome at that time, so he didn’t have a lot of interest. We ended up keeping him because we just couldn’t let him go.”
Keegan said it was easy to decide to share Cooper’s story online, if it meant helping other animals with short spine syndrome.
“While it is a disability and there are accommodations that we have taken in this home to make sure Cooper lives the happiest and pain-free life that he can, it is an extremely rewarding thing to … help others learn about his condition and share it in case other domesticated animals are born and they’re looking for homes,” she said.
Since starting Cooper’s social media pages, Keegan said she has helped adopt out four animals with short spine syndrome, including a dog in Poland, who now lives in a happy, healthy life in Florida. As of July 28, Cooper had 94,000 followers on Facebook.
Quasi, a German shepherd around 13 years old, was found wandering on his own. Owner Teri Woolard said Quasi was picked up in Kentucky and was initially thought to be feral. Around 11 years ago, Woolard and her family took Quasi in, and about two or three years ago, they officially adopted him.
Woolard, who fosters dogs with special needs, said Quasi often acts as a “surrogate parent” to newcomers, helping them settle in.
Though they don’t have dedicated social media pages, German shepherd Yogi and Australian cattle dog Yoshi, both with short spine syndrome, have also received extra love lately.
Haley O’Neill, an animal foster with more than 39,000 Instagram followers, fostered Yogi and Yoshi in 2023, after they were found abandoned at a park creek. Following the popularity of Jimothy, O’Neill shared a video of the dogs running around in her care, which has garnered more than 124,000 “Likes” on Instagram.
O’Neill told USA TODAY that Yoshi and Yogi required normal daily care and now live with Blue Feather Horse Sanctuary in Nevada.
Though more rare, cats can have short spine syndrome too
But dogs aren’t the only furry friends with rags to riches stories.
Kermit is an 8-year-old domestic shorthair with short spine syndrome based in Richmond, Virginia. In 2018, Kermit was dropped off at the animal hospital his now-owner Emily McKinney worked at.
“He was found dumped behind a 7-Eleven at about six to eight weeks old,” McKinney told USA TODAY. “I almost named him Slurpee, but the frog appearance was hard to ignore. Kermit quickly stole my heart and the rest is history.”
As a kitten, McKinney couldn’t tell anything was different about Kermit, but as he got bigger, his torso stayed short. X-rays revealed that the feline is missing six vertebrae and three ribs and the vertebrae he does have are fused and crooked, McKinney said.
“Specialists weren’t sure how long he’d be mobile, some even recommending euthanasia, so I committed to giving him the best short life possible,” she said. “Eight years later, he’s still zooming up and down the stairs daily.”
As of July 28, Kermit had more than 15,700 followers on Instagram and is affectionately described as “shaped like Danny DeVito.”
Creating a more comfortable life
McKinney said that as a kitten, Kermit experienced constipation and mild megacolon because of his body shape. For his first year, he was on laxatives and prescription cat food, but he fortunately outgrew the issues. As a younger cat, Kermit also was cryptorchid, meaning his testicles did not descend naturally and his neutering was a more invasive procedure than normal. McKinney said cryptorchid is an example of a genetic issue that can result from short spine syndrome.
“Luckily, Kermit now lives a very full and happy life with no specific accommodations,” she said.
Cooper and Quasi, on the other hand, do require extra help at home.
Because Cooper and Quasi cannot bend down to eat, their food and water must be served on raised surfaces.
Additionally, when Cooper walks, he twists his back feet, meaning he cannot walk on abrasive surfaces. Keegan said this means no long walks on the sidewalk, but Cooper enjoys running around the family’s grassy yard. Similarly, Woolard said Quasi struggles to use steps as he gets older. The family is therefore re-landscaping a portion of their yard to make it more Quasi-friendly.
Due to his body’s configuration, Cooper also cannot get up from lying down on his side, Keegan said. During an interview with USA TODAY, Cooper was flopped on his side on the couch behind Keegan, who said after the call that she would have to help get him right side up again.
And finally, though Cooper loves his human family, his time around other dogs is limited.
“Because he just looks very different from other canines, when he’s in larger groups with animals who haven’t been exposed to him, he can rub them the wrong way,” Keegan said. “He doesn’t socialize with his body language in ways other animals do. So we do monitor that very closely. He’s not a dog park dog.”
What causes short spine syndrome? Researchers aim to find out
Researchers are still learning about what causes short spine syndrome. Cooper, Quasi, Yogi and Yoshi have actively participated in this research.
In January, researchers at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine published a study analyzing three dogs from the same litter with varying degrees of deformity. One of the dogs simply had a short tail, and two, which were Yogi and Yoshi, displayed short spine syndrome.
The study argues that mutations in the DLL3 protein, which is vital during early body development, could be the root of short spine syndrome.
Kari Ekenstedt, an associate professor at Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, has been working on similar research for nearly a decade. She has studied the genomes of about 24 different dogs with short spine syndrome. A scientific paper she hopes to see published soon focuses on 11 dogs, including Quasi and Cooper.
Ekenstedt said she is “100% certain” her team has genetically solved six dogs, meaning they know what gene is affected to cause short spine syndrome. Two of these dogs are Quasi and Cooper. Though she aims to keep the study’s findings under wraps until the paper publishes, Ekenstedt said her results are consistent with those published by UC Davis.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway, Ekenstedt said, is that short spine syndrome is an overgeneralized umbrella term.
“When you look at the dogs, you kind of think they all have the same thing. They’ve all been lumped together as short spine dogs, but I can tell you clinically some of them have some additional life challenges or anatomical challenges,” she told USA TODAY.
Within short spine syndrome, Ekenstedt said there are about five or six different underlying genetic mutations. Additionally, animals with the conditions may have other issues like type 1 diabetes, rare in dogs.
As research continues, Ekenstedt said her message to fans of Jimothy and other short spine animals would be: though the animals can live happy, healthy lives, there is absolutely no ethical reason for animals with this condition to be bred. Ultimately, the social media stars have highly-accommodated lives, which can’t be the case for all animals.
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at gcross@usatoday.com.