The SunBreak
posted 10/28/10 10:15 AM | updated 10/28/10 10:15 AM
Featured Post! | Views: 0 | Comments : 21 | News

Belltown Rats Have Got a New Sheriff

By Michael van Baker
Editor
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Our pet & wildlife and real estate correspondent, Lyle George, provides this picture he snapped while heading to Gary Fukushima's show at Tula's in Belltown last night. The SunBreak has a long history of Seattle rat coverage, but this is the first time I've seen a solution that literally takes a bite out of the rat population downtown. Rats of 2nd and Bell--you're on notice.

UPDATE: A helpful commenter gives you...the rest of the story. "The dog's name is Ozzie and rat hunting is his favorite hobby. He is a Dachshund, not a beagle, and he is 11 years old. He can be seen most days around Belltown. His owner has plenty of other pictures of him catching rats (some bigger than that one) and then there’s the two Seattle officers that provided the spotlights one night so that the crowd of people that gathered to see Ozzie with one of his prizes could take pictures. He had on his cowboy hat that night."

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real?
I don't believe this is real.
Comment by ozmafan
3 days ago
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RE: real?
Lyle is from Nebraska. He never lies. It's absolutely undoctored, except for where I upped the color saturation.
Comment by Michael van Baker
3 days ago
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RE: real?
No it's blatantly doctored. Look at the clean cut photo-shopped line where the rats body just sort of disappears in to a smooth line of the dog's non existing mouth, like a clean cut in the space time continuum.

In other words: Fake.
Comment by Steve Winwood
3 days ago
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RE: real?
I think I'm with you on this one, Steve...
Comment by ozmafan
3 days ago
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RE: real?
Srsly, people, I'm looking at the source photo and it's for real. See the little rat paw by the dog's nose? For goodness sake. Not everything on the internet is a test. As for being a fake, je-fucking-accuse, Winwood!
Comment by Michael van Baker
3 days ago
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Real Rat
Wow! I've never been accused of faking a photo before. I'm flattered that someone thinks my skills in photo editing are that good. But, since I didn't edit, it's kind of meaningless. The only alteration that I noticed, was that it was cropped from my original posted photo.

I went to my trash can and pulled out the other image I have of the rat and dog that was at another angle and slightly blurry. Just in case it becomes important to prove to non believers the veracity of my photos.
Comment by Lyle George
3 days ago
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RE: Real Rat
It really comes down to me being appalled at the size of that rat, Lyle. And kind of in love with that dog's sweater.
Comment by ozmafan
3 days ago
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RE: Real Rat
Fact: dogs and rats are not enemies in Nature. They are united in a never ending struggle against the cat race.

Go ahead and post the other allegedly non doctored photo you claim to have, "Lyle George" and we will be the ones to decide your fate in regards to your veracity and verity.
Comment by Steve Winwood
3 days ago
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Also...
90% sure, "Lyle George" is a fake name.
Comment by Frank
3 days ago
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RE: Also...
Having gotten the good name [ahem-Allen], I can attest that our mother really did name him 'Lyle'. If you really want a laugh I could tell you all his middle name (from our Swedish Grandfather) but then Lyle would pummel me next time he saw me.

This is just the type of photo Lyle would have taken on his birthday yesterday on the way to a party.

Allen [I got the 'good' boy name] George
Comment by Allen George
3 days ago
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RE: Also...
As a long-time friend and neighbor, I can assure that Lyle is quite real, and that this style of photojournalism is far from unprecedented in his ouvre.
Comment by Larry Swanson
3 days ago
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eek
oh man. this is gross. i hope that dog is up on its shots.
Comment by leftleft
3 days ago
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RE: eek
don't worry, photoshop's not contagious
Comment by Steve Winwood
3 days ago
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Big 'ol Rat
Dogs eat rats. It is normal. And this is just an average sized-one. Cute photo, Lyle. Happy birthday to you, Mr. Adventure!
Comment by Joyce Ford
3 days ago
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the sweater is both appalling and awesome.
Hey, it's a dachshund, doin' what dachshunds do. I mean, they were bred to hunt badgers, but downtown Seattle is perilously low on badgers. Rats make an okay substitute in a pinch.
Comment by Kris
3 days ago
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It's an interesting dog
That casts no shadow.


Also, that's not much of a hunting outfit! Perhaps some red flannel next time, pup
Comment by bilco
3 days ago
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no shadow?
Since the origin of the light is close to the aperture of the camera, there should be no visible shadow in a night photo. The opaque object casting the shadow perfectly blocks the photographer's view of the shadow.
Comment by Allen George
3 days ago
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A friend of mine volunteered her dogs for this
a few years ago. They were some sort of hysterical terriers and thought rat hunting was the most fun *ever*.
Comment by Constance Lambson
3 days ago
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Dog and Rat
The dogs name is Ozzie and rat hunting is his favorite hobby. He is a Dachshund not a beagle and he is 11 years old. He can be seen most days around Belltown. His owner has plenty of other pictures of him catching rats (some bigger than that one) and then there’s the two Seattle Officers that provided the spot lights one night so that the crowd of people that gathered to see Ozzie with one of his prizes could take pictures. He had on his cowboy hat that night.
Comment by William Matson
2 days ago
( +2 votes)
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rats and dachs
In the last century the miniature Dachs I grew up with in NYC, the mother of rat cities with a rat population estimated to exceed the human population had a similar experience. "Sugar" a name she had when I inherited her from an early girlfriend had trained us to walk her regularly along her favorite haunts: the NY gutters. As she sniffed her delight, a rat larger than the one in Lyle's photo was consuming the delicacies of the gutter unaware of the dog that approached. Sugar, nose down, was unaware of the rat until she came upon it. Cool dude that she was Sugar never missed a beat, raised her head, whipped the rat around by its haunches, bit and broke its neck and sauntered past the corpse, nose down vacuuming the smells on her appointed daily rounds. The event took less time than it take to tell it. The rat was half the size of the dog.
Dachs means Beaver in German. The dog is bred to burrow into Beaver dens and dispatch them. So Ozzie has been doing what comes naturally, not smiling but giving the proper "all in a day's work" bored look.
Comment by peter herford
2 days ago
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This photo, rat/dog
I know this dog and his owner personaly and have for years. One thing I can tell all of you is that this photo is not a fake. For those of you that don't know, Dashhounds are bred to take down Badgers, one on one. And there is nothing that a city bred Dashound like Ozzie likes to do better and is better suited for than taking down rats, shrews, and mice.
Comment by Tina Berkley
2 days ago
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