First came the rain. Then came the toilet rats.

Wet rat winter? Here's what to do if you find a rat coming through your toilet following heavy Western Washington rain and floods.

It was midnight when Simone Gabara got up to use the restroom in her White Center home. Like many who make a late-night journey down the hall, she was half asleep.

"I lifted the lid, and I saw a shape in there," she recalled, adding that her first thought was that perhaps someone else in the house forgot to flush before leaving the bathroom.

And then a second thought: "But why does it have eyes?"

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It was late November 2021. A rat was in the toilet. It crawled through the pipes and into the bowl, but was trapped by the lid — no longer.

"Before I knew it, it had jumped onto the seat, and then down onto the floor," she said. "I was screaming a lot."

She fled the room, not knowing if the rat remained in the bathroom or had quickly scurried out behind her.

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Gabara looked for answers. She called a plumber. She looked up information online and learned that it is possible for rats to climb up through plumbing and enter a house through the toilet.

Eventually, Gabara trapped the rat in the bathroom. The crisis was over.

It's perhaps not common, but a rat making its way into a home via the toilet does happen from time to time. This is especially true after heavy rains send flood waters into sewer pipes, stormwater drains, etc. (Read more about this aspect of the region's plumbing, and how easy rats can access it, below.)

That's why Public Health - Seattle and King County recently advised the region to keep an eye on its toilets. Recent floods and heavy rains have raised the potential of such occurrences.

Public Health's advice is to leave the toilet lid down and trap the rat there. First, try to flush it away. If that proves difficult, then try throwing dish soap into the toilet to smooth the journey down. If all else fails, then a rat trap may be required.

'The rat has one eye'

This advice from Public Health comes a couple months too late for Max Chastain, who was surprised when he returned to his Ballard apartment late one night. He shares the apartment with roommates, but his room has a door to the bathroom. That's why he quickly noticed the toilet looked amiss — hair, droppings.

"Then I turn around and I see something scurrying," he said.

Chastain soon saw the distinctive tail and knew it was a rat.

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It came up through the toilet pipe, hopped onto the floor, and was scouting out the area. Chastain observed wet marks, tiny footprints, and droppings throughout his room; a trail that led him to underneath is bed.

There it was. A very wet rat, perched atop a trumpet case.

"Sure enough, under my bed is One-Eyed Willie ... the rat has one eye," he said. "Just this old crotchety rat. Huge."

The situation was alarming, Chastain said, but he had to admit that it was also ridiculous. He called in his roommates for backup and a plan was devised.

"We were able to make a maze to kind of guide the rat out," he said, explaining that the maze led to a sliding door — and to freedom.

"It ended up being hard, because the rat had one eye and just had no sense of direction. In the end, we were able to get the rat out through a maze of books ... from under my bed to the backyard."

"And then, I had to disinfect all my ... everything," he said.

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Chastain said he felt bad for the rat. It couldn't see too well and he could tell it was scared. He recommends others in this situation to remain calm, and "watch out for germs, because, jeez, toilet rat."

Seattle-area plumbing

While it might be a surprising, and frightening, incident, a rat crawling through plumbing isn't as unusual in the Seattle area as one might assume.

Parts of the stormwater and sewage system in Seattle, and in nearby King County communities, is more than 100 years old. Back then, the system combined the pipes from a home (toilet, sinks, shower) with the stormwater pipes (rain that runs off of the street). Anyone who has seen a rodent scurry down a storm drain understands how they can easily access these combined pipes, as well as other areas with old plumbing. And many of those pipes lead back into homes.

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The region has grown a lot since those days and a lot more is being sent down those pipes. So, when heavy rains send a torrent of stormwater into the local system, and it becomes overfilled, the pipes are designed to spill out in to the nearest body of water. That could be Lake Union, Lake Washington, Elliott Bay, or elsewhere in Puget Sound. This is called a combined-sewer overflow.

For example, as heavy rain struck the region Dec. 8-9, a total of 20 combined sewer overflows managed by Seattle Public Utilities (out of 82 it oversees) overflowed into local bodies of water, according to a utility spokesperson.

In nearby communities, nine overflows managed by King County spilled into local bodies of water Dec. 8-11, and again the morning of Dec. 15. According to a spokesperson with King County's Wastewater Treatment Division, when a combined sewer overflow empties into nearby waters, it is usually about 90% stormwater and 10% wastewater.

You can monitor when and where these combined-sewer overflows are active here. Avoid water in these areas when this occurs.

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