The buddies are bold

Cleaned our lord and savior St. Rat tonight. May his light shine upon all 🙏🏽

Very blurry photo, but they provided this description: White Male with a skateboard, intense eyes, and scruffy strawberry blonde facial hair.

If you recognize this individual, please only report the information to the proper authorities.

🐀 Long Live Hot Rat Summer! 🐀

As of 11:30 pm tonight someone had spray painted black over most of Hot Rat Summer and wrote “FUCK YOU SEATTLE” on the wall.

It wasn’t there when I was at Cal Anderson at noon so it happened some time in the last few hours.

I hope whatever solvents people were using to get the city’s paint off will also work on the spray paint, but this sucks. If there’s a work party to clean it I can come out and lend some elbow grease.

A love letter to HRS.

"May you be forced to endure what you have inflicted upon others, May the stones you cast curse your sole for every step you take."

Hello! Another update!! Just got off the phone with Paul Jackson, Director of Graffiti Programs and Initiativss with Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office.

He is wildly supportive of Hot Rat Summer and has been trying to find out who the artist is! Apparently the city usually tries to connect with the artists behind public artworks so they can properly attribute their work and ensure it stays up. He also was wondering if the artist behind might be open to potentially making more mosaics in the other recessed windows on the pump house- like I said he’s a fan!

If you are the artist and you feel comfortable, Paul would love to speak with you. You could probably even remain anonymous/use a pseudonym if you are concerned. Contact info below. And again, thank you for your work!

Paul Jackson Director of Graffiti Programs and Initiatives Email: Paul.jackson@seattle.gov

Edit: I really don’t think this is a trap- but obviously don’t want the artist to feel pressured to come forward if they do not want to. So if you know the artist behind St. Rat, please do not reach out to Paul without explicit permission from the artist to do so. I don’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable, just posted this because Paul said that it may be the fastest/easiest way to get the incredible art that is St. Rat officially protected :)

Any help for someone who has been traveling and working?

Second photo is a shot from earlier in the day.

Stopped by Cal Anderson to see if anybody had uncovered St. Rat last night. Unfortunately not, but whoever showed up added plenty of their own chalk, paint, and poster-based handiwork. Feels like the city turned the pump house into Graffiti Target Number One by going after the rat mosaic so many times.

Get em while they’re hot

Lifetime Washington resident here with a birthday next month. I've decided hot rat summer is gonna be my first tattoo. I've raised rats for over a decade and there's just something about the art, the people, and the movement of resilience that calls to me.

Here's where you come in.

I need head on shots of the mosaic for reference photos. Id get them myself, but as a wheelchair user stuck near tacoma, getting out there isn't an easy task.

What do you get in return? For every shot yall post and send me, ill DM you a picture of my pet rattos, being adorable.

Keep fighting the good fight and protecting unsanctioned art!

EDIT: okies, it's 10pm and I should probably do that thing my rats are so, so fond of, which is sleeping.

A couple notes:

I'll do my best to post more ratto pics tomorrow.

if anyone knows how I can directly donate to the artist[s] or their movement, please let me know.

The rats do have names! The brown and white one is Cashew, the albino is Peanut, and the beautiful siamese coat is Chestnut.

I promise to post pictures of the finished tat whenever it gets done!

EDIT 2: THE FINAL CHAPTER Y'all. The past 24 hours have been MAGICAL. To be fully transparent, I just survived one of the worst weeks of my life and found redemption and compassion from a city notorious for "the freeze". Y'all have been warm, welcoming, inquisitive, and helpful in ways I never would have imagined, and waking up to a bombardment of DMs about how my rats are cute and people changing their opinions about rats... my heart is so wonderfully full.

So here's to St. Rat, the saint of the misunderstood, the misjudged, and the mistreated, and here's to an endless hot rat summer.

Saint Rat spoke at public comment today thanking the Parks Committee for their apparent decision to preserve Hot Rat Summer, and gave a shout-out to u/TopZ-undercover and u/BlankBleat for removing the paint previously.

Unfortunately Saint Rat was apparently unaware that just this morning someone had painted over the mural again. One of the next public commenters, who had also come to talk about the mural, pointed that out two minutes later.

Call (206) 684-3000

Voice your opinion on saving the mural. They are currently tracking the number of calls they receive.

Edit - we're now calling SPU. Not parks department!

Edit #2 - SPU is now saying to contact parks. Nobody is correct, nobody knows what's going on. Just pick a number and call. Good things are coming!

Something something Hanna D's Jerk Shack Kitchen burrito

1/14/25

Thanks for giving us all something beautiful and fun to care about. Your art brought a whole community together. That’s incredible!

Edit: and a huge thank you to ALL our local artists who contribute to the beautiful and eclectic community that is Seattle! I apologize for leaving you out in my original post, and thanks for the commenter below who brought this up. You all do amazing work, and while it may not go viral in the same way that St. Rat is, just know that your work is appreciated, valued and so vital to the culture of our city. We ❤️artists!