Like the subject line says - my wife plays a gnome cleric of Desna (level 6) and is a slight "bad touch" build and geared and stated for that. She wants her character, named Mikk (pro. Meek), to get a giant badger or some such and ride it around and maybe even use it in combat. She's kind of new to PF and 3.x DnD and is a White Wolf and CoC player and got into PF last year with me. Me and my group are quasi maximizers, she could care less though she understands that she should hold her own (and she does just fine at that) as opposed to juggling bottles during an encounter.
First, we spoke to our GM. We proposed that we buy or have an encounter were we end up with a young dire badger. RAW... or as the PFSRD says - dire anything is a pain in the butt unless the GM says differently. Quite rightly in my opinion our GM said "meh" on the train a dire badger plan.
So, with optimization not as important, I am looking for suggestions on how to get a gnome cleric on a riding badger (or similiar animal) at level 7. Thank you in advance for help. Class dips and anything are on the table.