By Abby Simons
Star Tribune
MINNEAPOLIS — Rose Mary Pundsack isn’t sure whether time flew or stopped Sunday morning as she stood on a snowbank, desperately trying to coax a half-ton bull away from her husband, who lay helpless with an injured knee.
On Sunday evening, with her 74-year-old husband, Melvin Pundsack, resting a sore knee and the bull safely penned away, she reflected on how a quick-thinking police officer with a Taser may have saved his life. “I keep thinking about how horrible it could have been,” she said.
Just after 11 a.m., the Pundsacks, who live south of St. Francis, in Anoka County, were driving by their son’s land on Hwy. 238 when they noticed several heifers that had escaped from a pen.
They were rounding them up when they saw a young bull among them. It was slightly aggressive, but they managed to almost corral it.
But as Melvin Pundsack was lifting the metal gate, his knee gave way. The cattle rushed out.
The bull, too. “It wasn’t like he was real mean; he just kind of was playing with us, you know?” said Rose Mary Pundsack, 66. “He ... was putting his head down, which I didn’t appreciate.”
The animal never charged, perhaps because of the impromptu game of tag with Rose Mary, who’d called 911.
Stearns County deputies, Albany police, Minnesota State Patrol officers, two rescue squads and neighbors arrived, but no one was able to get to Melvin because of the bull.
Then an Albany officer fired his Taser at least twice at the bull, allowing the Pundsacks to get out of harm’s way. The bull was safely corralled.
Melvin Pundsack’s injuries were limited to his sore knee, which is scheduled to be checked out today.
Rose Mary said she and Melvin will avoid the pasture from now on. “I think we better take up a different hobby.”
Copyright 2009 Star Tribune