When I used to live at home with my parents, I would sit on the back steps and read a book while I smoked a cigarette. One morning, a raccoon approached me boldly and just sat there, watching me intently. It was really weird, because I was used to seeing raccoons at night, but not wandering around the patio in broad daylight. I stared right at it, but it didn’t become frightened, or agressive either.
I wondered if maybe he was hungry, so I put my cigarette out, stood up slowly and walked into the house and grabbed a pack of lunchmeat from the fridge. I looked out the door and he was still there, so I walked back outside to sit down on the steps again. I figured all the movement would frighten him off, but he sat perfectly still, just watching me. I tossed a couple slices of meat to him (he was only about 3 feet away from me) and watched him eat.
For whatever reason, I’ve never been afraid of wild animals (my mother thought I was insane when I told her), but I decided to see how much the raccoon would trust me. I held a piece of meat out with my hand, and just sat there, not moving. He actually walked over to me and delicately took the lunchmeat from my hand, then sat back on his haunches and ate it, kind of like an overgrown squirrel. I fed him the rest of the package and just watched him the whole time. I think I was outside with him for about an hour before he finally wandered off.
It was a really neat experience!