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 live 40 mi west of chicago, and we have a wolf in our forest preserves. took pics to wolf park and monty sloan, famous wolf photographer, believes it to be a wolf. saw it close up -15 ft away- not huge but shepard size. black body with brownish face whitish throat andbelly. small ears like wolf tail like wolf, not coyote. no look of dog at all. more coyote like face then dog. if anything othe then pure wolf, coywolf. could be what yours is. white spots show its shedding its winter coat. summer coat will be much lighter. have pics of ours showing it shedding its winter coat. looks scruffy.

Yes indeed, my neighborhood often has "lost little pet" signs on the phone poles and I always assume a bigger critter got them (one friend watched an owl fly away with her small dog!). I always supervise my dog when out at night, and usually she only gets to go into the pool enclosure, not the whole big yard. That's partly to keep her out of a tangle with a bigger critter and partly to keep her for rousting too many bunnies, twice she's gotten the better of a bunny and I _really_ hate having to deal with that. I guess the scat was a big coon, maybe a coyote although it didn't resemble coyote poo very much. We must have a new critter around, last night something stole a large bone that the dog had left in the ivy near the house.

My dog and I are puzzled by this big pile of scat we found by the pool this morning and wonder if anyone can help ID it. It is too big a pile and the pieces too large to have come from a tree rat or bunny or other typical yard critters, doesn't look like coyote or raccoon scat (we do have those in the yard once in a while). It was full of what looks like those little nuts found on some palm trees, with some poo material binding it together. Googled it and some links show that it resembles deer scat, but we don't have deer here. I wondered if one of the hawks or crows might have dumped it, but it's too large plus all in a nice pile like something squatted to deposit it. I'm in Los Angeles in the SW part of the San Fernando Valley, up a hill with a nice amount of greenbelt surrounding us but we are in a suburban neighborhood with houses all around, no direct link to the area's wildlife corridors so a bobcat or such seems unlikely, have never seen one of those around here. The pool area is fenced so whatever it was would have had to hop over the fence. Any ideas? I'll try to post photos. Thanks! http://s1125.photobucket.com/user/SBMW/media/Image%201_zpswurr5tr3.jpg.html http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l596/SBMW/Image%202_zpsweaezola.jpg http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l596/SBMW/Image_zpsd7mhv6og.jpg