Someone who doesn't like having nice things.

Raccoons are very smart. Smarter than many small primates.

I would wager that anyone who thinks keeping a raccoon as a housepet is smart will be quickly outsmarted by that raccoon.

I remember reading an article in National Geographic about animal domestication. A scientist ( I believe in Russia, if I remember correctly) had selectively bred Foxes that were comfortable with human contact. Over the generations, the foxes became more and more acclimated to human interaction. The point was to study the domestication of dogs through a related species, but the side effect ended up being a breed of pet fox that is essentially just like a dog. Of course, because this is a science experiment we're talking about, they also bred foxes that were most uncomfortable with humans, and ended up with a particularly nasty breed that can't stand people.

Sounds like you're talking about the Belyaev foxes. It only took 6 generations for the domestication experiment to produce dog-quality pets. The science experiment is down to relying upon selling off pets to keep running now though.

Raccoons are currently a big problem in Europe. They're indigenous to North America, but have been imported as pets. The problem is that they're hard to contain, and they're extremely efficient omnivorous scavengers.