Lamb likely lost in 'wild adventure' with Alberta farm dogs

A search for a much-loved, runaway "celebrity lamb" has been called off.

Olivia the lamb was well known around the town and neighbouring farms of Sundre, Alta, roughly 115 kilometres northwest of Calgary.

She travelled in the passenger seat of her owner's truck and sported little outfits complete with bows and pants.

Olivia ran away from her farm, the Eg Ranch, on Friday, April 13, with three farm dogs. 

The leader of the search team, an experienced pet tracker named Kim Taylor, says she believes Olivia has died.

"She was just a little girl, and I can't believe she kept to those dogs as long as she did, to be honest with you. She just ran along with them, and as far as she could run and she could run no more," Taylor said Wednesday morning.

"I think at that point, probably the coyotes moved in."

Only six-weeks-old, Olivia was still taking milk and needed a lot of care, as her mother ewe rejected her as a runt at birth.

Owner Ginia Rees took her into the house to nurse her and bring her up. Olivia quickly felt at ease and traipsed around the farm, playing with the farm dogs and cows in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

"She loves to chase balls. She'll take off skipping and bucking across the floor, so she was just a little heartbreaker," Rees told the Calgary Eyeopener.

On Friday, the weather had started to warm up after a long winter, and the three dogs and Olivia didn't come home that night.

They might have had spring fever to take off on such an unusual journey, Rees said. The dogs are believed to have travelled 24 kilometres before returning home Tuesday — without Olivia.

"Didn't think that she would ever in a million years go on this wild adventure following the dogs. The whole thing is so strange," Rees said.

But on Tuesday, the search team was trekking through 10 centimetres of wet, heavy snow, and the temperature had dropped.

Olivia's tracks had disappeared, as well.

The search team found a spot on the hill where Olivia had slept in the middle of the three dogs. They curled around her to protect her, Taylor said. The lamb would have been wet, cold and hungry, as she was not yet old enough to scavenge for food.

The dogs' tracks continue on, but no sight of Olivia's. That tells Taylor that a predator grabbed hold of her.

"It was like a surprise attack," she said. "There was no signs of struggle. She just vanished."

The site is frequented by a pack of coyotes, as well as owls and eagles, any of which could easily have picked off the tiny lamb. Her prints were the size of a coin.

"We tried. We threw everything we had: horseback, sled, quads, on foot, with snowshoes, with drones, with other dogs. We literally raked the land, section by section," Taylor said.

"This was quite a little celebrity lamb, so it makes it even a little bit harder. ... The community is going to miss the lamb."

Now Rees is taking care of her three returned dogs. They returned home with swollen paws, too tired to play or eat very much, perhaps because they had run from a pack of coyotes.

"I like to stay positive and I'd like to still say that she has a 50/50 chance," she said. "I want to have faith that she's out there somewhere."

• MORE ALBERTA NEWS | Legal Aid lawyers demand funding increase from provincial government
• MORE ALBERTA NEWS | App connects active Canadians with new gym buddies
• MORE ALBERTA NEWS | Calgarian lives childhood dream, outfitting knights with shining armour

With files from Donna McElligott and the Calgary Eyeopener.