Ours come out in the evening. I will typically give the dog a final, short, walk, around 10:30 pm, and she invariably sniffs until she discovers raccoon scent, and then she wants to stay out all night. Raccoons are not too frightened of humans, I guess they figure that they can run faster than we can, and find a safe place to hide. It is more likely that you have a cheeky raccoon, rather than a rabid one. Even so, I would keep my distance if it was in my yard. If it failed to run away from the dog, then I would be really suspicious of rabies.

Watch for a greenish glow in their eyes. But better not to get that close, EITHER. Could be distemper which dogs can contract. Behavior signs are best indicators. When I did wildlife rescue & transport calls (which sometimes meant corraling a sick raccoon), we also looked for rabies, distemper, and other communicable diseases like roundworm.

Thank you everyone for your great information. He was back again just before dawn and hung around for about an hour or so, then took off into the woods. He didn't look confused or agitated or anything like that. He actually worked his way around the yard like he knew right where he was going! Probably raids here every night and I never noticed. As I said before, I'd never approach any of these wild animals, but they are fun to watch. After the raccoon left, our "resident" groundhog came for his daily buffet. I didn't know my restaurant had a waiting line!!

BTW, I don't have any dogs or cats and there's only one stray cat around the neighborhood. We live in a very small secluded wooded area with only 12 houses on the street.

FCF, that greenish glow is just the reflection from their taptetum lucidum and it's normal.

Tonight I was in my garden behind my house when my raccoon sauntered up to check out my headlamp. I've seen him/her before but never had an encounter with the creature. He did not seem agressive in the least, almost like he wanted me to pet him. When I grunted, or shuffled my feet, he would back off a couple of feet, then resume walking directly toward me. I even bent down and held out my hand and he got within about 3-4 inches. I never touched him knowing that they can carry diseases and have very sharp teeth. But he never seemed agressive or defensive. He seemed like someone's long lost pet.

I live in a small city with a wooded garden and woods on both sides of me. I have a small pond/waterfall and lots of terraced beds. I guess I have Raccoon Disneyland. I don't like the way they trash my waterplants, but have lost very few fish from when the pond level got too low. I gave up on growing water plants and have to settle for bog plants in the margins of my pond. I'm doing my best to live with these guys. He was so cute and furry I seriously wanted to befriend him. Don't worry, I never touched him. I do worry about my geriatric kitty who sometimes hangs out when it's warm outside. She doesn't seem to pay much attention to raccoons or squirrels, so I guess they'll leave her alone also.

Jillmcm -- I'm going to key in those words and do further research. Thanks much wildlif'r.
Big raccoon was spotted under our maple trees at 9:30 am this past Tuesday.

Well, it would help if I spelled it right for you, wouldn't it? Sorry - proper spelling is tapetum lucidum. It's a reflective membrane in the eyes of nocturnal animals that helps them see in the dark - and it's what makes their eyes reflect when a light is shined on them. Think deer in the headlights glow.

Please do not ever approach a raccoon day or night! We live in Raccoon Central here and they are a real problem. Even without the worry about rabies, they are wild animals and will attack without warning, and they can inflict serious damage, and can, in fact, easily kill a cat or small dog.

A few years ago, late one night, I heard some loud munching in our kitchen, went to investigate, and out scuttled a raccoon which had been feasting on the cat's food. He got in through an open deck door. As soon as he was out the door he turned around, stood up on his hind legs and began hissing at me. We were barely three feet apart. He was a beautiful creature, but OMG was he angry! I very carefully reached over and managed to slide the door shut. After that we blocked the openings in the deck flooring. Now there is no way to exit or enter the deck except through our dining room.

Raccoons also carry a disease which they leave in their droppings. A little boy in a neighboring town here contracted it while playing in his sandbox. His central nervous system was severely damaged and he will never have a 'normal' life. IMO, raccoons should be treated like all wild animals - with respect and at a distance.

What is the disease that raccoons carry that attacks the central nervous system? Sounds serious. I have lots of coons here, and see the big giant dumps they leave behind all the time. Mine are usually nocturnal, but I have seen them come out from under the deck during the day whenever I put them out some sushi scraps. ONe time one of them came out ate the tuna discards and left three big steaming logs for me on dwarf mondo grass.

I have observed many times that racoons in more rural or natural areas will be active during the daytime, and coons in urban places busy with people they operate under the cover of night. I have all but discontinued my coon feeding, because I am afraid that since I left out scraps and stuff more of them have been hanging around and putting too much pressure on my reptile and amphibian poputlation. Coons are cool and very interesting animals, but I would rather my abundance of reptiles and amphibians back. Recently I had aspirations of fattening up a coon to around 60 pounds, but the population grew not the size of a single individual.

Also in regards to animal eye luminosity: some animals will indeed have a particular color in the light reflected, like FCF states. This can be a handy-dandy ID tool if you do a lot of nighttime rambling. Combine the shade you see reflected, the distance between the two eyes you see and the rough height they are from the ground and you can get a decent shot at guessing who those eyes belong to when you can't see the rest of the animal. Sometimes it helps to note how those eyeballs are behaving, as well. Are they bouncing back and forth, as if the animal is trotting, or are they fixed on you for an extended period of time? Sometimes deer will just do nothing but stare, while some animals get nervous quickly and take off. Of course deer are easy since they are so far off the ground and so brilliant (but I have been fooled by deer standing in ditches with just their heads at the ground level before). Whip-poor-wills have ruby red eyes, fairly close together at road level. Coons usually have a greenish to greenish white glow and don't hold still for long. Another coon giveaway is a set of greenish eyes that suddenly raise up about a foot if the coon does a classic up-on-its-back-legs-for-a-better-look trick. Even moths and some spiders have a reflective glow. An animal that has been struck and killed very recently by a car will still reflect light from its membranes for a short time.

The disease carried by raccoons is raccoon roundworm - Baylisascaris procyonis. It can be contracted by inadvertantly handling their feces. The child who contracted it here had been playing in his sandbox, which contained small amounts of droppings that he didn't notice (he was only four - young enough to still be putting no-nos into his mouth, or handling them and then just putting his hands in his mouth).

Here in the environs of the Monterey Peninsula, we are bombarded with advice not to leave any scraps of any kind of food anywhere, and never to feed pets outside. Raccoons not only carry roundworm, they can also be very aggressive. A few months ago, a woman was walking her small dog in Carmel at dusk, and they were attacked by a raccoon. Her dog ended up in the hospital and she went to the ER for serious stitches and rabies shots. Many years ago we had an indoor-outdoor cat who showed up with a large laceration in her hind leg. The vet said that it was a raccoon bite, sustained as she was running away from the raccoon. Now our kitties are indoor only and there is not so much as one kibble outside the house.

I live in a suburban area on the outskirts of Boston. Recently, I noticed a friendly raccoon that sometimes wanders out as early as 6pm. It is very cute and my cats and it seem to get along quite well. My neighbor and I named it Fred today. Fred has not taught my cats how to eat worms and snails yet, but he certainly holds their attention. I am not sure why I named it Fred; I guess it could be a girl. I will try to keep my distance, but since I work during the day I tend to do my gardening in the early evening. I wonder if I can get it vaccinated?

I did urban field research on a raccoon population in Milwaukee's Grant Park. There is a feeding station along a park fence. Locals take a walk after dinner and bring table scraps to the site. This has been going on for 50 years. The feeding helps curb the need for raccoons to leave the park to search for food and the area available for them would not support their food needs without this co-opted neighborhood support. It is fun for the humans and the raccoons love it.

Raccoons drop scat on the tree limbs of their tree dens. This is how they communicate their address. They also drop scat to mark areas where they find food sources that they will want to return to. Removing the scat may help diminish their ability to return to your yard if that is your goal.