85-year -old Woman saves Husband From Moose Stomping

From the Anchorage Daily News

An agitated moose ran down and stomped a well-known Bush pilot from Willow, but he was saved when his wife grabbed a shovel from their pickup truck and whacked the big animal until it backed off.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, George Murphy, 82, and his wife, Dorothea Taylor, 85, were at the Willow Airport around 10:30 a.m. They were running their dogs when Murphy was charged by a moose. Without trees or cover to hide behind, Gorge dove in to deep snow, and the moose began to stomp and kick.

Taylor was sitting in her truck when she saw the moose rear up and strike at something on the ground with its front hooves. She didn’t know that her husband was down or that the moose was stomping him. Taylor got out of the truck, thinking the moose was stomping on of the dogs, and the moose charged her. She found a shovel in the back of the truck and managed to hit the moose, and kept swinging until the moose went away. She found her husband in the snow, bloody and unable to stand. Taylor returned to the Hangar to call 911, and the Willow volunteer fire department responded and stabilized him. Murphy was then rushed by medical helicopter to Providence Alaska Medical Center, where he is recovering from gashes to his head and left leg as well as seven broken ribs.