Badger encounter welcomes new couple to Lovell

When new Lovell resident Kass Klemz looked out her kitchen window on East 10^th Street last week and saw something running along the backyard fence, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“I was looking out the window and saw a critter running along the fence,” she said of the August 4 sighting at around 6:15 p.m. “‘That’s a big, fat cat right there,’ I said. ‘No, it’s a badger.’”

Indeed it was.

She called husband Mike, who was in another room, and the two watched the large weasel sniff around the yard, running along the fence.

“I was worried it would look for a winter home under our new shed,” Mike said, adding that he poked his head outside long enough to tell the badger that he wasn’t welcome.

“I thought it was cute,” Kass added.

Mike soon called police, and about the time an officer arrived, the badger made its way outside and across the street, leaving the same way it came in under a gate to the east side of the house. It crossed 10^th Street and headed for the Globe Canal via Scott and Cindy Allred’s property north across the street.

Scott even came across the street to ask, “Did I hear the word badger?” and saw the badger make its way toward the canal.

Kass admits the visit has made her a tad nervous about going outside.

“We’re on badger patrol,” Mike said. “That’s the first badger I’ve seen.”

“He runs point,” Kass joked.

The officer told the couple to call for animal control at the police department if the badger returns.

Mike and Kass Klemz moved to Lovell from Everett, Washington, in early June, and now they have a good story to tell their friends back home.

There was also a badger sighting on East Third North in Cowley on Friday.