It won't be long now before they tear us to shreds.

I would think it's a sign that there are too many rats and now they must partake in riskier behavior to find food. Or perhaps there are too many humans so we increasingly cross paths with rats doing what they have always done, on occasion.

Keep the toilet lid DOWN at night!

News articles I have seen in the past showed about one local complaint per week to Seattle utilities of rats in the toilet (mainly at night).
The Norway rat (rattus norvegicus)is our local friend, with thicker body, and smaller ears than the roof rat (rattus rattus). Don't let your cat out at night - they might get jumped!

Clearly, we need a new Pied Piper, but one who also specializes in charming hipsters and bros — not children.

@4 - My cats regularly kill rats. At night.
Are yours not up to the task? I suggest feeding them less. A hungry cat is an active predator killing rats.
Rats haven't become smart enough to work in packs to take down vicious predators like felines. But rue the day that ever happens...

I've noticed this phenomena of outdoor rats in this city, behaving like squirrels or something. I read somewhere that the urban bunny phenomena is due to a series of 'warm winters'. Haven't really noticed winters being much warmer around here (yet) but I guess they have been. Maybe that has something to do with the outdoor rat thing.

Repeat after me: "ok Google/hey Siri are rats nocturnal?"
"Mostly" is the answer. Animals besides humans tend to sleep in multiple short bursts. Nocturnal animals are not day sleepers.

Besides, in coming out during the day, the real threat is birds of prey. The ones that can spot rats from half a mile up. You may have heard that some of these are also nocturnal. They're called owls.

This was a fun piece of writing, but really: nothing to see here.

Never had a beef with the rats. But the raccoons are some motherfuckers.

Somewhat recent tale involving a woman’s toilet bowl, much screaming, the calling over of another female friend, nail polish remover, bleach, the burning out of swimming rat’s eyes until they are white(an interesting photo) and transferral into an outdoor trash container via paper bag while still alive.

I walk into this mid-story and ask, “so did you kill it”?

Friend says “Nope. They tortured it”.

I’m gonna blame this on landlords making 99% of rentals pet free. Get some more cats up in here. (I suggest everyone get an emotional support kitten RX to deal with the trauma of seeing giant rats crawling out of toilets)

Not to worry! Problem solved!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g9d3DfDWsEE

"But what is happening in Seattle at the end of the second decade of the 21st century (an epoch called the anthropocene because of capitalism)? We are seeing rats that have become totally fearless. They come out during the day and go about as if they are squirrels or birds. They are also becoming huge, which is another indication of growing fearlessness. The idea is to keep small and out of our sight. But just look at this big Leschi rat eating a tomato, and you will see things are really changing."

I think you make an excellent argument for police reform in Seattle.

"Too Many Rats That Don't Know They Are Rats." You shouldn't speak about politicians that way.

Currently in therapy for rat discovered in toilet bowl. It was floating but dead and bloated, the stuff of nightmares. I never put my butt down without taking a good look anymore. Not sure if I take comfort in solidarity of neighbors with like experiences, but thank you for illuminating the issue of the burgeoning rat population.

@6 treacle: You and your cats are equally lucky if they can effectively hunt rats. I'm with pat L here. I had a Turkish Van cat who was a natural born hunter of brown house mice. I kept him strictly inside after dark because of raccoons. One night a gang of them paraded past our rented house into the woods. Jay (my cat) growled and hissed from the safety of being inside the locked front door, looking out the glass panes. A raccoon turned, raised up on its haunches and taunted him before moving along with the others to their hideaway in the town park. When we lived in Ballard (before we moved north of Seattle and adopted Jay from a cat shelter) raccoons were among the gangs. Their leader, muscular and the size of a pit bull, had no tail ( it probably got chewed off in a fight!). Do not mess with raccoons. They rifle through dumpsters like rats, are aggressive and territorial as hell, and are just as filthy. They are also susceptible to rabies.
@10 Mtn Beaver; Agreed and seconded! Raccoons are the mafia of wildlife. They can grow to be as big as dogs, and will cheerfully tear a cat in half while eating its food and spit on its dead body. Now that they're urban, long with deer, coyotes, foxes, and even cougars and bears----WATCH OUT! The Animal Kingdom is after us, folks. Keep your cats inside after sundown.

@8: It’s amazing (isn’t it?) how Charles, who has repeatedly written with undisguised glee about the number of homeless persons living on our streets, never makes the connection between piles of garbage left all across our city, and our city's burgeoning rat population.

Eh, he’s just showing off Dan Savage’s trick, of recying old material to meet today’s employment obligations. But still, his failure to draw the connection is pretty hilarious, given how many of his columns demand the reader see connections only Charles has made.

You think those are big rats?

@18 Your narrative died in the primaries, tensor. You're not coping with it very well.

Seattle's rat population expansion predates the expansion of the homeless population, by at least a century. We have family-owned exterminators that have been in business since the Coolidge administration.

But you're right about Mudede writing half a post and then cutting and pasting to hit the bars early.

@20: Yes, Seattle has had rats for a long time, which was not Charles’ point. Are you seriously claiming there is no connection between the literal tons of garbage thrown onto our streets by homeless arrivals, and the changes in our rat population Charles has described?

Also, since you (again) brought it up, please describe, with actual quotes from me (urls required) this “narrative” with which you seem to be completely obsessed. (Provide examples of me actually narrating it in my own words, please; your opinion alone counts for nothing.) I am genuinely curious to learn what this “narrative” is, and why you keep going on and on (and on...) about it.

@21 I'm sorry you're having such a difficult time.

Your bug-eyed hobo-loathing is not going to spread throughout the electorate, and sweep wealth-sheltering candidates onto the city council. This is your narrative. Not your literal quote, but your narrative nonetheless. It is dead. The bum-baiters are all gone, defeated decisively despite high spending. The incumbents all won their primaries by double digits. The socialists all made it onto the ballot. There are counselors out there who can help you process your grief, if only you reach out to them.

Seattle's restaurants alone generate more than 100 times the rat-fodder as the homeless population. Homeless people do generate trash, just like everyone else, but one thing they tend NOT to throw away (or have extensive stores of) is food. Go back to whatever year you want to call the beginning of the current homelessness crisis, and I'll find you an article in the local papers from the five years previous on the burgeoning rat problem.

The biggest local rats are at City Hall.

There's an explosion of rats in Ballard - take in your bird feeders people and let out your cats!

WOW. What a cry baby! How old are you, Charles?
Come on now, whining about big ol passive rats. Geez
In my experience with cohabitation with the local wildlife,
which includes our big ass rats,
is if you leave them alone - they leave you alone.
So then, why are you so desperate to have them fearing you?!
So desperate to have them running and hiding from you, Godzilla?
God complex much??

And lets be real; They rarely ever even end up in houses.
Besides that, the up side of them getting huge is that they will no longer fit in the plumbing!
No more toilet companions! XD
(note that the date on that tweet was 2016, they don't even fit in the plumbing NOW!)

But seriously, I've walked right by these big ol garbage collecting rats,
(COUNTLESS times, some of those times not altogether sober and perhaps stumbling at them a bit.. ahem),
and they have had zero interest in me whatsoever.
They have even been more courteous than most people I've encountered on the sidewalks and actually moved out of my way..
They're super passive unless you are coming at them all aggressive with some kind of swinging object or putting off some hostile vibes...
cough cough CHARLES cough cough ...
Learn how to coexist, Chucky.
It's not like they have a lot of places they can go,
now that we human folk have taken up much of the planet.

They are adapting to survive,
and actually coexisting better than a lot of (dare I say, better than even MOST) humans,
so props to the big ass rats!
Besides that, they clean up the garbage every lowlife human being (talking about all the humans who think the street/sidewalk/etc are their personal garbage can) litter about and use it for their homes/food,
so they are also an active member of the community by cleaning up after you and they aren't even being paid!... Maybe we should petition for their work rights! :O

In summary;
Quitcherbitchen, Chucky.
If this is the biggest thing in your life to complain about,
your life is not looking too bad and your focus needs to be adjusted into some bigger world issues sir.

Affectionately,
-Has to wear clothes in society, just like you.

@22: I'm sorry you're having such a difficult time:

“This is your narrative. Not your literal quote, but your narrative nonetheless.”

I’ll take inspiration from Charles’ fine example as a professional writer:

“Provide examples of me actually narrating it in my own words, please; your opinion alone counts for nothing.”

Maybe it's time for an updated rat centered version of what's arguably one of the worst movies of all time, Night of the Lepus. It still amazes me just how many famous and talented actors they signed up for that disaster of a movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYj_krIHoLs

@27 RickFromTexas: Not to mention Willard (1971) its sequel, Ben (1972) that featured the theme song sung by a very young Michael Jackson (in his Jackson 5 years), and the very campy Day of the Animals (1977). In all fairness, though, I have heard of Night of the Lepus but never saw it. The plot reminds me of a rabbit overpopulation problem that occurred on San Juan Island in the late 1970s. Interestingly, the area now has a very healthy fox population.

There are a number of rats living around the Broadway Hills park at Federal and Republican. They have been eating the produce in the P-Patch and today I saw one in a tree above the gardens!

@3 This is why King County's Renton wastewater treatment plant has a team of feline rodent hunters. It is NOT an urban legend that rats travel in sewage pipes--they do! There isn't a single worker at that plant who hadn't had rats rump on them many times until the plant adopted a set of barn cats. Since then--problem solved.

https://kingcountywtd.com/2015/10/09/feral-cats-take-on-rodent-control-duties-at-south-treatment-plant-in-renton/

That's a nice turn around from a decade ago when King County was euthanizing ~5000 cats a year. I know it was a big fight and work culture change, but all sides should pat themselves on the back.

@3 -- are you Sure?
When you pop open the lid
won't the Rat pop out too?

What if you are not aimed right at the toilet?
Do rats like to be petted?
How do I clean my Rat?

"Rats haven't become smart enough to work in packs to take down vicious predators like felines. But rue the day that ever happens..." --treacle

It's probably just a rumor, but I hear Monsatan's mixing a little (bit of) elephant and dolphin with rats and using them to patrol the grounds at night. They're HUGE, smarter than a Republican and you should see 'em FLY across the water (like a Dash Parr on meth). You can see they're working shit out between 'em. And they love to cook too...

Here's Quentin Tarantino's take on the rat [Jewish] problem:
[from Inglorious Basterds]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTFdjs_QGWc

I want you to touch my filth
I want you to feel my filth
I want you to look into my eyes
I want you to look through my eyes
BLACK FLAG "RATS EYES"

@12 really important point you make about landlords banning cats. As another poster points out, restaurants, too, unfortunately, create a great portion of the rat population and (I don't know Seattle rules here) but in NYC, for example, this translated to a showdown between the health department (which was actually creating a health issue) and the bodega cats, business owners with cats on the premises who keep away the rats.

I personally and also favor clearing cars out of certain central areas of Seattle various districts. In addition to making things more eco and pedestrian and child friendly, it also makes it more outdoor cat friendly, and keeps the rats away.

There's a certain population of bourgeoisie cat-adverse because of things like the birds in their yards, but honestly, they just need to put up fences.

Cats, IMO, are part of a natural order as human companions that help balance the consequences of our identities as trash creators, and their absence from our outdoor urban environments, along with the growth in rat population, is a further red flag as to how we are driving ourselves to eco hell.

@36 An additional note...I read, during the bubonic plague, superstitious people initially blamed and outlawed cats as the source of disease. People who love cats and knew better broke these laws (kind of like pot smokers, I suppose) and continued to keep cats around. Finally others began to notice that these people weren't getting sick. And so, they began to connect the dots, correctly, to the rats instead.

@37 i.e they were actually burning cats (instead of rats). And thereby increasing plague instead. But there's a modern day equivalency, IMO, in our health dept like obsession with ridding our environment of historical human companions like cats, and because we think we're being cleaner or more sanitary. We think it's rational, but it's actually another form of superstition creating more of a health issue instead, and again, with more rats. Rats are very sensitive to the mere presence, even, of cats. If rats just know cats are around, they stay away.