Between this and a search of tomoe_mami raccoon_tail, can anybody offer an explanation for Mami being connected to tanukis? Some sort of pun a la Gomadoka or Homurakko?
I'm pretty sure it's a pun. Like, I remember reading somewhere that you can write 'Mami' with the same characters as 'tanuki'. It was a footnote in one of the comics where Mami was a tanuki, IIRC.