Avoid a direct confrontation - a raccoon is not normally an aggressive animal but if it feels threatened (or is a female with babies) it is quite capable of defending itself and inflicting severe damage on its opponent. 

Raccoon rabies is a strain of rabies carried mainly by raccoons. Raccoon rabies is rabies. It can be spread to farm animals, pets and people through the saliva of an infected animal in the same ways as other strains of rabies. Raccoon rabies kills raccoons, other animals and humans in the same way as other strains of rabies do.

Adult raccoons may be anywhere from 24 to 40 inches in length (including 8-12 inches for tail) and weigh 14 to 40 pounds depending upon locale (larger raccoons in the north) and sex (males are larger than females). Average is about 3 feet and 25-30 pounds.

Many people wrongly believe raccoons "wash" their food. Others have stated that this behavior is only something observed with captive raccoons, related to their instinct to search in crevices between rocks in streams and creeks for crayfish and other goodies. Still others say they are not really "washing" but do this to moisten their food. (Despite what these people may have heard, raccoons DO have salivary glands.) And some people mistakenly think raccoons must be very clean animals because they wash their food. From my personal observations, all are wrong! Raccoons will put their food in water. True. However, they will do this even if the water is the same water they just went to the bathroom in. This has nothing to do with cleaning or moistening it or captive behavior. I believe it to be instinctive behavior. This activity increases their tactile senses. They can "feel" their food, and thereby learn to identify it through their highly developed senses of touch and smell.