I have seen probably thousands of raccoons over my 64 years of life, most of it spent in Ontario, but only one was "much bigger" than a cat; generally, coons around here run about the size of a large tomcat.

Raccoons are related to bears; like their bigger cousins, raccoons are fully plantigrade and omnivorous. For a small animal, the raccoon is formidably intelligent; they easily defeat the latches on compost and garbage bins carefully designed to keep them out. (In Toronto, a city crisis-crossed by ravines that make ideal raccoon habitat, people call them "trash pandas".) I have seen a family of raccoons (mum and four kits) work together to flip six-foot planks left out on the driveway, presumably in search of bugs and slugs and such small deer.

People do manage to tame raccoons that are found as weanling kits, but I've never heard of one being successfully house-trained. No city person should try it.

Cats flee from raccoons. A raccoon will kill and eat baby kittens, but won't bother with an adult cat -- too big, and too many claws to be convenient.