Healthy Baby.......Raccoons

We have a compost bin out back. Well, not so much a bin as an old bathtub with a piece of plywood over it. We're classy. Anyway, something has been getting into it for a while. It's not a huge deal really. We put old food out there and something eats it. I don't really care if it's a raccoon or a possum or maggots or bacteria. As long as you don't cause trouble outside of the compost bin, we can all live in peace.
Two weeks ago I had to go out to my truck right at dusk to get something out of it and a quick glance over to the bin revealed a large raccoon holding a piece of watermelon rind. Last week somebody tipped over the garbage can and nibbled on some cupcake wrappers. Things were clearly getting out of hand and I had resolutely decided to trap and relocate our increasingly annoying friend.
Today I got home from the store and the dog was going a bit bonkers in the garage. I went to check it out thinking that she had the raccoon cornered and there was a fight brewing. She was just looking up at the high shelves in the rafters. I put the groceries away and went back to the garage to get her so she could come inside and calm down. That's when I heard it. Noises. Little squeaking chortles. Baby raccoons. At least two of them. Huge problem.
Any of you who have been reading along know what happened last year with the baby heron that fell out of it's nest. If you've been reading back farther you have heard about the raccoons and the crow and all of the other stuff that I helped raise as a kid. If I trapped the mother raccoon and was somehow left with the babies, I'd have to raise them. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't.
Clearly I cannot trap the mother raccoon now. She has to stay alive and healthy and hanging around for long enough to get the babies big enough so that I can trap them all. I need her to be a successful parent. If she fails as a parent it will be bad for my marriage. I can't let that happen.
On the shelf below the one that holds a stack of squeaking chortling tires, I have put a bowl of food. I'll fill that bowl pretty much every day for the next month. I will do everything I can to keep that mother raccoon healthy and around to care for her babies. If all goes well, I'll trap them all in a month or so and send them to live someplace more appropriate than my garage. Until then, healthy mom, healthy baby.....racoons.