Raccoons are wild animals, pests, and exotic pets at the same time. They are basically forest-dwellers, but easily migrate to inhabited and uninhabited areas surrounding the forest. They are seen to be comfortable in making their homes in mountains, marshlands, and heavily populated towns with equal ease. Some pet owners manage to domesticate them fairly well, but never expect from a raccoon the type of domestication you find in cats and dogs kept as pets.
There were famous raccoons which have made it to history books. Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, kept two pet raccoons in the White House called Rueben and Rebecca. Though they had an outdoor dwelling, they were allowed to wander inside the White House also.
Rebecca, in fact, was sent to the White House to be cooked and eaten for a Thanksgiving dinner but the president took a fancy to the cute little girl that decided to keep her as a pet than eat her. She continued to stay with the president and the first lady, got a companion, and grew to become a well-liked resident of the White House. She was sometimes served delicious meals consisting of cream, eggs, chicken etc. besides her regular omnivorous food of small animals and plant products.
While Rebecca became a celebrity, it may not be equally easy for you to raise a raccoon in your home with far less space than the White House and with hardly any help to raise it. However, available statistics show that raccoons raised in captivity thrive well because many pet raccoons live till the age of 15 and in some cases have lived even up to 20 years. But it is not easy to care for them and if you are raising it inside a home, caring for a raccoon could be tougher than caring for a baby. You may find your lipstick inside your shoes, or your toothbrush inside your kitchen sink. Babies also do it, but they stop it when they grow up but with a raccoon it will be for life.
Life in the wild, where there is stiff competition for survival, is apparently tougher for a raccoon, for its life expectancy there is seen to be a maximum of slightly above three years. Further, once it is used to living as a pet, it will not be possible for a raccoon to readjust to the tough life in the wild. They perish soon if released back into a forest.
If you want to raise a raccoon, get it when it is a small baby. When it is handled by humans from the very beginning, it is bound to grow up less aggressive and will be friendly with human beings. But it is unlikely to completely shed its tendency to bite, and may bite you if it gets frightened. So get it inoculated on time against rabies, distemper and other diseases that it could pass on to humans.