Eden, you must be correct. It is the habitat and food source, so urban raccoons are different than rural raccoons.

As I said, I have raccoons, but they don't eat kitty kibble every night. It is not a constant food source for them. I am not going to change how I feed the cats on the outside just because a raccoon wanders by now and then. Indeed, my porch is a wrap around, gated at each end, and trellised with vines. A raccoon has to go to a lot of effort to get up on the porch. I can tell when a raccoon visited during the night because the pet water bowl will be dirty, and consequently I know that there are weeks and weeks where raccoons don't visit at all. I manage my land and forests to be a wildlife habitat, so I believe the raccoons prefer the natural food found in the woods to the human produced food of the kitty kibble.

In that respect I don't have any fears of raccoons contaminating my pets with diseases. The area in which I live teems with wildlife, and I give all wildlife my respect and the right to live on my land without fear of being hunted or trapped. I merely do not want the predators to be close to my house at night.

Would love to see a photo of the plum eating dog too.

Darcy