Raccoon are in the bear family. There's a store in the people's republic of B-town called "The Bone Room." They have quite the collection of skulls, skeletons, horns, large insects mounted in a framed box. I should go back soon, haven't been there for a while.
I used to buy gifts for my nephews and nieces there. I gave one of my nephews a raccoon skull. Oh man. Those teeth. I would not want one of those coming after me with determination. Seriously carnivorous looking.
NPR had a story a while back about a woman who was attacked by a rabid raccoon, in the snow, outside her semi rural home. No neighbors were in sight of her and her husband and son were in the house about 50 yards away. They couldn't hear her. She struggled with it for some time, finally getting it pinned under her by twisting one fore paw and using her superior weight to keep it from spinning loose. But she couldn't get up to escape as he/it would be at her again. Finally she snaked out her cell phone and her husband came and killed it, I forget how.
**THIS JUST IN**
I did a search for 'rabid raccoon attacks' thinking I'd find that story. Whoa, a lot of stories on that topic out there. Interesting one here - in the photos, the resemblance to larger bears is striking:
http://www.colleenpatrick.com/blog/2009/09/rabid-raccoons.html