First, thanks to bluebloom for scat photos very informative even if I was trying to eat my dinner at the time :P tomatovator, from reading the various source material provided by Dr. Carolyn & digdirt I'm left with the impression that it is safe to consume these tomatoes however if buds/flowers get contaminated then you might not want to eat those particular fruits. Windclimber, I have not ID the animal that treated my Earth Box as new form of outdoor plumbing but I doubt very much it could be a bear I really believe I'd see much more damage if that were the case. My fiance discouraged me from buying liquid fence saying it was not very practical and that I'm not being overrun with various animals which is true (we'll see). It's interesting to note that whatever it was has very strong smelling scat because it's been a few days since I scooped this out of the Earth Box (including surrounding soil) and yet still catch a whiff now and then but slowly it is dissipating. I too think maybe it was a raccoon as I've seen one or two in the area plus fox and coyote. The good news is it has not returned that I know of so all's quiet on the eastern front and I wait patiently for these little ones to ripen (photo linked below) I have lost the ID tag for this plant but I'm sure it's a hybrid and it has rugosa type leaves I bought it to hold me over till my heirlooms come on :) Here is a link that might be useful:

I think it looks like wet soil too. If it's a scat I would not touch it without gloves and an N95 approved mask because it's not "normal" for any animal I know of. What I mean is that IF IT IS poop, it's likely poop from a sick animal and you need to take precautions not only looking at it but collecting it for specimen, allowing children around the area and indeed allowing pets around the area and when discarding of it. Having said that though, I still think it looks too earth-like to be poop (from the photo at least). Barb southern Ontario, CANADA

I guess you mean the sunflower hearts? I use them instead of regular sunflower that way I don't have hulls everywhere. I think I've figured out who's scat it was I also found some around the dog food bowl (outside) there were no tracks other than the dog and birds. I know the bluejays often eat the dog food, so I think it's bluejay poop. :)

Thanks, that makes sense. The grass is always matted down right near where I found the scat. It's definitely bedding for some sort of animal, and even thought its smack dab out in the open in my back yard, I've seen deer bedding a few feet away in the winter nights. A neighbor claims to have spotted a cougar behind their house. I normally wouldn't pay that any attention living in MD, but when the called the dept of natural resources, they were told that others had spotted what they thought was a "cougar" in the same area. Someone claims that they found cougar tracks, but I'm still highly doubtful. Just thought I'd check that rather large scat out with people who knew better than me. Thanks again.