Yall ain't shiit
Racc00ns and Bears Share a Common Ancestor
Along with dogs and cats, racc00ns are part of the order
Carnivora. However, an evolutionary tree shows that they are most closely related to bears, sharing a more recent common ancestor with these burly beasts than with either of our domesticated friends.
Source: GWU
Notice that the evolutionary tree splits earliest between cat-like species ("Feliformia") and dog-like species ("Caniformia"). So, the dog-cat division happened early in carnivore evolution. Racc00ns arose within the Caniformia suborder. So, technically, the answer to our question is that racc00ns are more "like dogs." But there's more to the story.
As evolution progressed, the ancestors of modern-day dogs and the ancestors of modern-day racc00ns went their separate ways. Then, about 40 million years ago, the tree split again, with racc00n-like animals going one way and bear-like animals going another. (
Here is a tree depicting the evolution of just bears and racc00ns.)
There's a Bear in the Woods
As it so happens, a few days after we bought our new house, a black bear wandered through our yard. (It climbed over our fence and its sizable rear end bent it.) Little did we know that the racc00n family that made an appearance a few months later were cousins. Distant cousins, but cousins nonetheless.
Catset displaying their lack of neurons again