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Wild Capitol Hill | The rats of Pillars Park and the Party Mountain goat of Pike/Pine

Screen Shot 2013-10-03 at 2.34.24 PMIt’s been quite some time since our last Wild Capitol Hill post. While there haven’t been any recent snowy owl vs. seagull forums on 11th Ave recently (the seagull lost), we do have a fresh litter of Cap Hill critter news, below.

  • The rats of Pillars Park: Earlier, CHS freaked you out with our post about a possible Capitol Hill ratpocalypse stemming from the work on the Waterfront Tunnel. Tipster informs —

    I’ve heard there are hundreds of rats hanging out near that Plymouth Pillars Park over on Boren and Pike. I haven’t seen them personally but they’re out at night or dusk and it’s over 25. We’re speculating that it has to do with the tunnel or there’s a dead body in that overgrowth above the freeway.

    CHS checked it out and didn’t notice anything unusually ratty in the area around the pillars and the dog park. Keep us posted.

  • Rabid Hill squirrels: On the rodential heels of reports this summer of rabid bats along the Capitol Hill Riviera, this CHS reader asks if anybody else has noticed Capitol Hill squirrels, well, acting squirrelly:

    My husband and I live near 14th and Madison and walk to work downtown almost everyday.  Over the last couple of weeks we’ve encountered two what appeared to be rabid squirrels.  They were on the sidewalk, hissing as kind of curled up.  Any other such reports?

    Sounds awful — almost as awful this marketing or these rainbow squirrels of Burien.

  • City crows: How did crows develop a social safety net? It’s possible that Noisy had problems with physical coordination, or maybe the bird was developmentally disabled. (Like birds? Check out our CHS Aviary series)
  • Party Mountain goat: It was a strange summer for the Pike/Pine street kids and Cal Anderson campers. There was a noticeably increased focus on industry, for one — anybody else get their windshield squeegeed? There was also an increase in animal husbandry highlighted, of course, by the famous (and possibly moved on??) panhandling goat of Capitol Hill. CHS never bothered to get the goat’s story — it’s likely whatever you are imagining is way more interesting — but there was plenty of coverage on the Capitol Hill social network:





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daninseatown
daninseatown
10 years ago

Uh, yeah…there are thousands of rats on Capitol Hill already. Anyone that isn’t aware of that isn’t paying close enough attention.

SMAJ
SMAJ
10 years ago
Reply to  daninseatown

That “park” has always been infested with rats. It was worse before they tore out all the ivy but I saw a nice sized rat there as recently as day before yesterday. In broad daylight. It just jumped the wall from the grassy side right into the dog park. The people and the dogs were oblivious. (The people had their heads buried in their phones and the dogs had their noses buried in other dogs’ asses.)

madeittothemoon
madeittothemoon
10 years ago
Reply to  daninseatown

I’ve only seen one rat in Seattle, and I’ve been here a little over a year. I’ve lived in several other (older) cities, and I saw A LOT more rats in the span of a year. I’m not saying there aren’t rats in Seattle (or that they aren’t a problem), but there are far less here than in other cities.

evon
evon
10 years ago

The panhandling goat moved to Ballard last I heard. There was a 9/25 article on the MyBallard blog about him.

DB McWeeberton
DB McWeeberton
10 years ago
Reply to  evon

Panhandling goat: “Goodbye Capitol Hill. I’ve outgrown you.”

Fn
Fn
10 years ago

What I want to know is where the goat stays when those street kids go back home. Pretty sure you can’t have goats in Juanita Hill.

Bitty
Bitty
10 years ago

I’ve seen herds of rats running through to the dog park from Pine. And for those who haven’t seen rats in Seattle – look up. The telephone wires are a rat highway.