Scary raccoons!

For those of you who don't know, we have a very small poodle named Pepper. We recently moved out into a small town with lots of country around it, with lots of wildlife. Ok, not lots, but the worst kind. Raccoons. My first run in with them was when I was living in Oakland,CA with my aunt and uncle and my room was the basement. The only way to get to my room was outside, down some steps, past the decking. It was very spooky going down there and night and I did not like that it was the only way to get there. One night I'm heading down and I hear some awful hissing sound. I turn around and there are like 4 raccoons hiding under the deck staring and hissing at me. It scared the living daylights out of me because I thought I was going to get eaten by a bunch or rabid creatures, and sliced to bits with their claws. So ever since that time, I have not been fond of those beasts.
So we let Pepper out at night to go to the bathroom before she gets in her kennel and we have a lot of yard that is overgrown with blackberry bushes and other such things, and we know that lots of feral cats live in the bushes, and now we know raccoons do to. The first encounter happened when I was mad at her for pooping in the house. I put her outside with the light on and forgot to check on her. Adam comes along and turns the light on, not knowing she is out there. He gets in the shower and as he is getting out, he can hear through the bathroom window the dog screaming and comes out buck naked yelling "something is getting your dog!" I jump up and he followed me and we both go out back, and I see what looks to be a large cat chasing Pepper into the shadows. She is screaming the most horrific dog scream and as they come back towards my voice as I'm calling her, I see it is a large raccoon that is making grunting noises. I freaked and tried to jump up onto the deck and it's wet so I slip, and after that the raccoon runs for the bushes and Pepper goes in her kennel for safety. It was so scary. I thought she had been torn to shreds and luckily she was faster than that coon or she would have been a midnight snack. That was a month or so ago, and now we go out with her and watch her in the light.
Well, she's kinda a dork, and whenever we let her out, she always runs to the same corner barking her head off likes she's some pitbull or something. The other night I'm getting the girls ready for bed and i put Pepper out with the light on and my sliding door cracked so I can hear her. She goes straight for her spot, and suddenly her barking turns to terror and the coon is back at it again. This time I'm right there and run to the door to call for her, thinking she'll come and the beast will high tail it at the sound of my voice. But as Pepper is coming towards me to get into the house, the coon is right on her tail and I have to close the door or I'll have a raccoon in my house, which is not an option. I felt bad because it closed right when Pepper got to the door and so the raccoon was right there on her as she darts away. It made me sad. I opened it back up and called for her and the coon finally headed away for the bushes as I throw my hummingbird feeder at it to get it moving faster. Pepper comes in and goes into her kennel again to settle down. My heart's a beatin and the girls are in hysterics. They were both crying for Dad, and he wasn't there at the moment and so I had to try my best to settle them down, and they were crying in bed for a long time until Adam got home and I sent him in to settle his girls down. And now they are terrified of going out at night and when Pepper has to go out. Luckily she avoided being eaten or hurt once again. We put out a live animal trap to catch it, but dorky Pepper got caught in it because she wanted to eat the bait, so we are still waiting to catch that pest.