OAP reaches for grandson’s cuddly toy on stairs... and disturbs badger!
WITH four young grandchildren running around the house, tidying up after visits can be a never-ending chore.
But as Graham Rait stooped to pick up a black-and-white furry ‘toy’ on the upstairs landing, he suddenly found himself face to face with a snarling badger.
Yesterday Mr Rait, 74, said: ‘He was just sitting there, curled up. My immediate reaction was it was one of my grandchildren’s furry toys, but then it started moving, showing its teeth. I was absolutely gobsmacked.’
His wife Hazel, 73, a retired teacher, said she had been in the kitchen when the badger must have sneaked in through the porch at the rear of their converted barn in Isham, Northamptonshire, and bounded upstairs. She said: ‘I heard this thump, thump, thump, but I assumed it was the dog. ‘I heard Graham shouting, so I went to the bottom of the stairs and there it was. The last thing I expected to see was a badger.’
After they shooed it out of the house, the badger, which was bleeding from an injury, settled in their garage, so they called the RSPCA.
Mr Rait added: ‘ The RSPCA man reminded us how dangerous badgers can be – his colleague lost two fingers to a badger he had mistaken for dead.
‘We ought to keep the door shut more, but I never thought we’d have to worry about a badger breaking in.’
An RSPCA spokesman said: ‘The badger had a severe wound which was infected. It was so serious he was put to sleep to prevent further suffering.’