Hey fellow racoon lovers! I'm in a situation that I could use some advice so please, someone educate me:

We live out in the country. There's a mountain/hillside right outside our back door. We have an indoor/outdoor cat and a small dog that is leash trained.

We noticed a raccoon or two here and there coming down some nights to eat leftover cat/dog food that I put outside for my critters to snack on when they're outside. We also leave our human leftovers out for them as well (instead of throwing them away in the garbage)

Lately, the racoons are coming down more and more and are bringing family members along as well. It's gotten to the point where we have to actually check before we step outside through the night (as aging people, we're up and down all times of the night and we go outside to smoke so we use that area a lot)

Am I asking for trouble by continuing to leave food out there? Do racoons pose a threat to domestic cats and small dogs? Sometimes our little dog will hear the door and try to bolt out before we can catch him..... he's almost 6 months old so he's still learning things.

Please give me your stories of your encounters of racoon families coming to your yard. I'm trying to decide if I should actually stop leaving food out for them or is it quite harmless having an increasing number of these cute lil trash pandas coming into our "living" space!

Thanks in advance for your help!

ETA: we also have coyotes that get really close to our house......I don't wanna increase the likelihood that they will come closer in hopes of snatching a raccoon/racoon family!