News writers and broadcasters have been having a field day with puns this week reporting the story of police in Norfolk on Wednesday pulling over a car that had a bull riding shotgun.
Lee Meyer of Neligh driving with his bull Howdy Doody has been a familiar sight in Neligh and in parades around northeast Nebraska for years, but not in Norfolk – about 30 miles away.
Police Capt. Chad Reiman told Norfolk radio station US 92 that when a call came in about a car with a cow in it, “they thought that it was going to be a calf, something small or something that would actually fit inside the vehicle.”
Instead, Howdy Doody is a fully grown Watusi, a breed that can weigh up to 1,600 pounds. Meyer modified a former police car to accommodate his friend, sawing off parts of the body and windshield, adding a platform on the passenger side, and installing a farm gate as a door.
Captain Reiman says the getup and Howdy Doody’s massive curved horns raised safety and other issues for the responding officer, who decided to just give Meyer a warning and tell him to go home.
Meyer’s wife Rhonda says he bought the bull as a calf 8 or 9 years ago and they’ve been “best friends and buddies” ever since – adding that her husband takes him out for a walk once a week to eat grass and plants in the road ditches along the highway.
The original story posted by News Channel Nebraska drew the attention of broadcast networks and newspapers of all sizes around the world, passing along the story or doing their own follow-up.
In 2019, a video posted on Facebook of Meyer and Howdy Doody in a local parade went viral and was seen over 2-million times.