Harley and the Raccoons

I learned tonight that raccoons love it when I forget that I've left a bag of trash out on the back patio. I also learned that our cat, Harley, hates raccoons. Her idea of fending them off is to get in the window nearest them and howl as loud as possible. This likely causes the neighbors to think I'm beating her. I can't get her out of the window because she spazzes out with hissing and claws. So, I turn to trusty squirt bottle, which doesn't move her, and only makes her howl louder, because now she is a wet cat with raccoons on her turf. I finally had to scare the raccoons away. (Note, the squirt bottle doesn't phase them.) It was hard because they weren't afraid of me coming out the door - they probably thought I was bringing them another course. Anyway, wiht the raccoons away, Harley calmed down. I bribed her in to the kitchen with cold cuts, taped some magazine pages up to the window in case the raccoons come back, and that seemed to do the trick.