Eden, I've lived in this house for 20 years and we've never left food outside and no raccoons. Fortunately we've no neighbors that think they are cute to feed either. On the cat network I have heard of fat sassy raccoons that suddenly decide that cats are fair game. and the cats that survive raccoon attacks are in a pretty bad way..Raccoons outweigh most cats by about double when they are healthy and fullgrown. THank goodness I don't have to deal with that!

the only varmints we have are starlings who screech and carry on while they destroy my fig crop. I shoot them with my trusty water hose and foil them by putting socks on large figs.