Thanks everyone! I've been stuck at work for a few days and haven't had a chance to respond. To ease any concern (that I may be an unreasonable live & let live extremists), we do have poison in the house and should I ever find Any activity there, the culprits will be killed without hesitation (if the poison doesn't get them first). As for the outside pests, I have a hard time viewing them as pests, flat out, across the board. Like Dawn, I see rodents as just another part of the cycle. Of course, I don't want them growing in numbers near the house either, but within reason I'd rather just catch and relocate like I did the other day. (Don't worry Dawn, I wore gloves and actually held my breath for the bedding removal) I appreciate all animals, and know quite a bit about handling them. I knew rodents carry disease, parasites with disease, etc. What I don't anything about is pathogens. Reading Hantavirus is airborne was news to me. I thought one had to be bitten, or ingest excrement to become infected. I also wanted to know the "shelf life" of the virus since that rat possibly has been making "Hanta-pellets" in my compost or "plague deposits" for that matter. :) I know we have predatory birds, but I haven't seen any snakes yet (although they would be very welcome! I love reptiles!). Getting a cat is not an option at the moment. My 5 bulldogs wouldn't have it, I'm afraid :) But Tree, I'd love to rescue a few once I have an acreage with a barn. I actually did rescue fulltime for a few years, but mainly giant breed dogs. There are a ton of great cats out there too! Since I won't be able to move the compost, I've done the best I can with preventative measures. I filled the space between the house and the bin with a foot of rock, and packed it in around the sides, after filling in any openings/pathways under the bin. Wbonesteel, I completely agree! That is what started the mouse hunt in the first place. My hubby set some boxes out for me and a few pallets two weeks ago, but I hadn't gotten to them yet so I decided to get out there and get them up and away from the house. Once I finished that I tackled the compost bin :) No sense in griping about rodents if you built them a hotel, right? Mia, thanks for the link. And, yes, I have been called crazy many times for all the things I've caught just to identify and learn about. The rat is definitely not the craziest thing I've put in an aquarium so I could Google it lol When I was 9, I brought home a 20lb alligator snapping turtle rigged in a sling made of shoe laces and sticks.. my mom just about lost it! Lol I had no idea that thing could've probably bit through my arm let alone all my fingers! It sure was cool though, plus I learned a ton about turtles that week :) Helen, my next property will have all the compost far far away from the house lol My main compost is actually on the back fence line, but when we arrived here I thought the old banged up flower bed would make a fine little kitchen scrap bin. Clearly, I am very new at gardening/composting :) Oh, and I'm sorry about Puff, losing a pet is terrible. Miraje, I almost hate to admit this because I'm sure almost everyone will think I'm insane or a complete idiot, but.. that picture was taken inside my house! Now remember, I caught this thing in a box so I didn't actually know what it was until I emptied the box into a big aquarium I have. However, that all occurred outside so I knew exactly what I was bringing in, when I carried it into the house :) Here's why.. I wanted to watch it, Identify it, read about it, learn more about rodents, protect it from -5° tempts since I was holding it hostage, take a picture then relocate it. Crazy or not, it's a life, a beautiful fat, healthy rat. The prettiest rat I've ever seen actually. It looks like an obese mouse. I realize that all may sound strange to most, but animals are IT for me. Learning about the creatures around me, in depth, has been and will always be a hobby per se. Just by catching this one rat, I have increased my knowledge on rats, mice, voles, and mole exponentially. Not to mention, all I have learned on pathogens (who knew the CDC website was so interesting?) Oh, and I've learned more about composting! Long story short, I love nature and all that comes with it. I've been catching creatures and learning about them since I could outcrawl a sowbug :) Of course, I've grown out of putting any of my new "finds" in my mouth, but other than that not much has changed lol Crazy or not, I caught the little buggers, learned a ton, then let them go miles and miles from my house! :)

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

sorry three responses haha... didn't see the bottom two pictures. Apparently the scroll feature is not over-rated. Thanks for posting this, I am not 100% confident on what the predator is and wish I had the opportunity to see it in person. My best guess is a weasel... I don't know where you are from but I'm assuming least weasel to be able to fit into the vole's burrow. Weasels have an innate instinct to kill as much prey as possible if the opportunity arises. The reason they do this is because they have a high metabolism and take the protein as they can. If they have excess food they will sometimes only eat the brains or in most cases they will store the food for a later time. Fishers also make food caches and a few others in the weasel family. I believe this picture shows a weasel's "cache." I don't think the weasel will come back and finish off the vole family because i'm sure some bird or insect will get at them first (especially because it seems like you live in a pretty warm area). Still... it may... Pretty awesome find and it seems like you found a natural pest control! no more trapping!

A friend of a friend had a little dog that died of kidney failure shortly before this whole story broke. He wasn't old at all and was always very healthy. He went downhill very quickly. One day he seemed fine and the next day he was in kidney failure and after an unsuccessful intervention he died. His regular food was one of the recalled brands. His mom called the company after the story broke and they told her she could take her unused food back to the store for a refund. She explained that she didn't have any more food because after her dog died she threw it all away. The lady at the hotline basically told her that without the food there was really no way to prove that her little dog had actually died as a result of the food. All this woman wanted really was acknowledgement of and an apology for the death of her sweet little dog and instead she got zilch. So like silvergold said, we will never know how many animals were really affected because the company will only admit to cases that can be 100% proven.