She immediately got up and ran into her parents bedroom.

Her mother, Cecile, thought Jenna was having a nightmare. But her step-dad, Wayne, was already up and heading toward the garage to get the mace, as the bear made its way toward the bedroom.

"It was pretty terrifying," said Cecile, who along with her daughter, called for police assistance and waited it out in the bedroom until the coast was clear.

Wayne found the mace, but the bear had retreated to the kitchen counter and was too far away to spray. As Wayne started to look for the keys to his gun cabinet, the police arrived. However, by then the bear had left the house.

"I thought it was the dog at first," said Jenna, thinking back to when she first saw an animal wondering around the patio of the home.

She thought it was just the family's black Labrador retriever and paid no attention to it at first ... until it put its paws up on the windowsill and pressed its nose against the glass.

The bear left the house the same way it came in, through an open window, by the patio door. The bear ripped out the screen on the way in, but other than that did no real damage.

"There was a lot of mud," said Cecile, who spent the early hours of Wednesday morning cleaning up muddy paw prints, and picking up black bear hair.

To prevent this from happening again Cecile said she will "keep the windows closed at night." Other than that there really isn't a lot she can do.

"This is the first time I've heard of it," said Ernie Campbell, a six-year veteran of Resources Wildlife and Economic Development. He said bears rarely ever enter a home.

"I told them it was in the house, they didn't believe it 'til they came in," said Cecile.

The bear was seen a few times throughout the night and early morning said police, who received a handful of reports from residents who had seen the wandering bear.

The animal was finally tracked down around the Butler Road area behind Extra Foods and killed by RCMP and bylaw officers.

"When it starts coming into houses, it becomes a danger," said RCMP Staff Sgt. Dave Grundy.

Campbell agreed, saying the bear was too brave, and it wasn't going away like most bears do after they pay a visit to town.

The bear has already been skinned. Its hide will be given to the Hunters and Trappers Association or a Dene band.

Jenna, who wouldn't mind having one of the bear's claws for a souvenir, summed the incident up in one word: "scary."