Ram on the lam in Lethbridge is 'legendary' runaway sheep

"Anyone missing a ram?"

As in animal, not Dodge truck.

That's the question a Lethbridge College instructor is asking after he found one while mountain biking in a coulee during his lunch break. 

"I was near a bend, and I looked, and all of a sudden I saw a ram," said Dave McMurray.

It looked similar to a big horn sheep, but it wasn't.

McMurray wondered if it was an escaped dog with a cone of shame on its head.

Nope, not that either. 

Just a lonely sheep, looking for company, with a bit of cardio thrown in.

"I rode a little bit further down the trail, and I turned around, and it kept running towards me. We kept this up for about a kilometre," McMurray told The Calgary Eyeopener on Thursday.

"I let it get to about three metres from me ... it wasn't aggressive, but it was very direct."

McMurray started to head back to the college, and the ram followed along the river path for at least a kilometre. 

Back at work, he told his colleagues about the ram — only to learn they'd all seen it too.

"I've heard people say it's been out there for months ... years, so there's quite a legend that's grown around this ram."

Turns out it's a domestic sheep that frequently gets away from its owner.

"Apparently, he's all alone and he no longer has a herd ... I guess he's looking for love in all the wrong places," McMurray said.

It dropped by the Lethbridge College on Tuesday, where it was photographed peering through a cafeteria door.

People have started calling it Rodney the Ram, or Toot, the flute-playing character from the old Hercules cartoon, McMurray said.

While conservation officers aren't very concerned, the owner is trying to catch it.

So if you spot him, send a tweet to Lethbridge College.

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With files from The Calgary Eyeopener.