Which only proves -------------- naaah, too easy. 
The bigger problem with raccoons as pets is that they are incredibly smart and will destroy just about anything if the mood strikes them. There is a reason they wear a natural bandit mask. They can get into almost anything they want because they are extremely sly and dexterous. The only hope you have is to get one or two that have been abandoned by their mother at an extremely early age and raise it as a pet. That works some but it also works for black bears and raccoons have lots in common with tame bears. You can have fun with them until they decide want something else.
I have known people that have had them as pets and they can be fun until they are not. Raccoons are smarter than dogs in many ways and can destroy your house if they want to. Possums are disgusting in any form. That is what you call nature gone bad. The attractive marsupials are in Australia, not the U.S. I am all for exotic pets (I have a pet chinchilla that I love dearly and is spoiled beyond belief) but there is no way I would have a possum around. They rank well below sewer rats. Nature should have ended that model line a few million years ago.
I raised a flying squirrel once. Cute, smart, adorable.
Also, I found a baby raccoon hanging around his roadkilled mother. Took him home and raised him. Great pet for a few years. He lived inside.
No possums though. Too ugly.
Leaving the issue of birds aside (I am very biased and emotionally invested in the topic), I am constrained to inform you that you’re quite wrong regarding ferrets.
The species of ferrets kept and bred in captivity are not wild animals. Humans have kept and bred ferrets, originally as hunting animals but now mainly as pets, for hundreds of years; they are effectively domestic animals as much as rabbits and ducks.
Despite misinformation to the contrary which Fish-and-Game bureaus (purposely?) spread concerning these animals in states where it’s illegal to keep them, domestic ferrets aren’t capable of establishing feral colonies; breeding them requires care and particular conditions that don’t obtain in the wild.
Perhaps you’re thinking of the American Black Footed Ferret, an entirely different animal which has never been tamed, and is now very heavily protected as an endangered species of American wildlife.
I have only owned 1 ferret and only for a few months so I don’t claim any particular knowledge on ferrets. I used to often wonder about their ability to establish themselves or a colony. I have never heard of it happening even when some encouragement was given to do just this. While my ferret was very tame and friendly I couldn’t help but feel he was basically still a wild animals who had gotten use to people. He seemed he was always looking for ways to escape and did on a few occasions. Is this typical, I really would like to own another ferret but if they are generally more tame than mine it would be a plus.
I think there are different kinds of domestication, with dogs being a special category as they are essentially neotenic wolves, i.e., trapped in biological adolescence. You’re not so much an “alpha” as life-long parent figure to them. Cats and mustelids havent undergone neoteny, as far as I’m aware – birds either (though they may count as neotenic dinosaurs).