Gail’s Pet Badger

A Pet Badger

I’d never think to have a pet as ferocious looking as a badger. They have fearsome claws and are noted for their digging. My mom was given a baby badger back in the 1930s and she raised it and kept it as a pet.

She tells some remarkable stories about what it was like to have a pet badger. Here’s more information about the American badger and more about her pet badger.

Mom took this photo at a museum. She said it reminded her of her pet badger, Jolly.

An Unusual Pet – An American Badger

• Preview of My Flint Hills Childhood
  on the Blurb.com website (or click on the preview above). The book won the 2010 Ferguson Kansas History Book Award.
• “Jolly Was a Badger” (excerpt from My Flint Hills Childhood: Growing Up In 1930s Kansas)
  Excerpt from the book on the author’s website

Young Gail McGhee in front, center. The shed in the background might be the wash house that the badger lived in, where he dug tunnels in the dirt floor.

Baby Badger

Gail Martin describes in her book how they raised the badger as a baby. This video shows a European baby badger, but it would have looked pretty similar to this.

Great Video of a Badger 

Note that it has a harness. It also digs just like my mother described her pet badger digging in their potato patch. A collar didn’t work for the badger as it would just slip off over its head.

badger poster by whitebirch
Browse Badger Posters online at Zazzle.com

• The American Badger in Kansas
  American badgers are found from southern Mexico through the western two-thirds of the United States into southwest Canada.
• University of Utah website
  Listen to the sound of a badger

Here’s a comment on Mom’s story by JenaleeMortensen, “I steer clear of angry badgers. I was very young when I watched one charging at my father all teeth and claws. It’s hard to imagine having one as a pet. Thanks for sharing your story of a pet badger.”