Behind the Badge - That Ain't No Cat
That Ain't No Cat
District Game Warden Mike Raasakka
Somedays you never know what you will get into. One of those days occurred in January of this year.
I received a call from a homeowner who said he caught a badger in a live trap that had been living underneath his manufactured home and did not know what to do with it. Being only a few miles away from the location I thought I could go and give him a hand.
I proceeded to the location which ended up being a home on a saltwater disposal well.
As I got out of the vehicle, I noticed high snowbanks around the house and I could not see the live trap anywhere near the outside of the house.
I knocked on the door and the individual and his wife answered.
The husband said he would show me the badger.
He told me to follow him, as we were going to the back of the house, I presumed there was a door at the back that went outside.
As we got to the back of the house, he pointed to a bedroom door and stated the badger was in there.
I opened the door and there sure enough inside a spare bedroom of the house was a snarling badger in a live trap.
I asked them if they could get me something to throw over the trap to calm the badger down.
The wife brought a blanket which I put over the live trap. I was then able to pick up the live trap and carry the badger outside to my pickup, although he was still not a happy camper.
I put the badger in the back of my pickup but was left with a nagging question of how the badger got inside the house.
I went back in and asked.
The husband and wife stated they had been hearing noises under the house at night like an animal scratching.
They then stated that the night before the heat vent in that bedroom had been pushed out of the floor.
The husband had decided to get a live trap and put it in the room.
They stated that they thought they had a stray cat living under the house.
Much to their surprise the next morning they did not have a cat in the trap but a very angry badger.
I told them how lucky they were that the badger had not gotten loose in the house that it could have torn the whole house apart, or to get up in the middle of the night to find a badger wandering around the house.
The husband said if that would have been the case, he could have probably still seen his wife running down to Texas.
I then took the badger several miles away and not near any homes.
I was finally able to release him from the live trap while lying on the tail gate of my pickup and holding the door of the live trap open and with the trap upside down and poking the badger with a stick.
The badger finally ran out of the live trap and ran approximately 10 feet away from the pickup and turned and looked at me and gave me one more growl.
Not sure if he was saying thank you or not.
I then took the live trap back to the house and told the husband and wife I was able to successfully release the badger.
I still do not know how the badger got inside the heat duct work of the house.
Everyone was happy with the outcome, including the badger.