Random thoughts about racoon survival

It seems that modern day racoons are facing a conundrum when it comes to survival. These nocturnal bandits are known for eating our garbage and making lovely messes everywhere they go (they remind me of my kids). I am thinking that if our diets are causing coronary problems and heart disease in us, it must be affecting these creatures in the same way. Has anyone ever run blood tests and checked their blood pressure to see just how unhealthy they are because of their newly (as in the last hundred years or so) acquired diet?

It is not actually the diet that really concerns me, it is the obesity problem. I know, I know, racoons are SUPPOSED to get all fat and stuff to make it through the winter, but I have noticed on my paper route that the really fat ones waddle across the road at a much slower pace than their thinner counterparts. The ratio of fat dead racoons on the road vs. the skinny ones is skewed heavily toward the fat ones (and yes, I am taking into account bloating). It is ironic that the ones that manage to eat more garbage than the others would typically survive longer, but in our urbanized environment, they are dying earlier deaths and therefore maybe not passing on the superior genetic material that results in fat, happy racoons.

No, I don't have an answer to this problem for racoons, except to maybe use sidewalks and crosswalks vs. playing chicken with cars that are out at 3 in the morning delivering newspapers. Lucky for all the racoons that I have met, I have quick reflexes and manage to avoid sending them to an early grave. For all those to have been so unfortunate as to have lost the chicken war with the cars they were playing with, a moment of silence please.