‘Brad the Sheep’ back home after three weeks on the lam
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After three weeks evading capture and wandering at least 40 miles from Two Harbors, down the North Shore of Lake Superior, through Duluth and the railyards of Proctor, an Icelandic sheep that’s captured hearts on social media has finally been caught and returned home.
The sheep, dubbed “Brad the Sheep” during the volunteer rescue mission, was raised on Ryan Osvold’s small farm in Carlton, Minn., where he keeps 15 Icelandic sheep for their wool, which he uses to knit socks and mittens.
Osvold recently sold the young sheep to a farm outside Two Harbors. But on Oct. 29, when the sheep was getting transferred to its new pen, he escaped.
That was the beginning of an epic journey.
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“When he left there, he ended up at the Two Harbors airport, which is about five miles as the crow flies,” said Osvold.
The roaming ruminant ventured to Knife River, then back to Two Harbors, garnering attention on social media along the way.
A volunteer with the Lake County Humane Society named Shana Roberts nicknamed the sheep “Brad,” and spearheaded an effort to rescue him. But the sheep-seekers couldn’t catch him.
Eventually he ambled all the way to Duluth. He was spotted clacking over the rocks at Brighton Beach along Lake Superior, at the historic Glensheen Mansion, and then crossing a busy intersection on London Road.
He wandered up the steep hill, away from the lake, to downtown Proctor, where video was taken of him grazing in the railyard.
Finally, Tuesday, at a home in Midway Township, Osvold recruited a veterinarian to help subdue Brad with a tranquilizer dart he borrowed from a neighboring farmer.
It took two darts — after Osvold scared away a young bobcat who he spotted stalking the sheep — before Brad “took a nap,” Osvold said.
He wrapped him up in a pair of coveralls, placed him in his truck, and brought him back to his farm, where he placed him in a pen away from the other sheep.
“Probably wasn’t a half hour after we got him in there and got him uncovered and untied, that he popped right up and went right for the hay and started munching away,” Osvold said.
He estimates the spot where Brad was captured is only about five miles from Osvold’s farm as the crow flies (or as the sheep walks.) He said it’s almost as if he was trying to find his way back home.
“I would love to just think that that’s the greatest story in the world, and that’s really what he was doing. It sure seemed like that's what he was trying to do,” Osvold said.
If that's the case, it’s fortunate Osvold found him when he did. Brad would have had to cross I-35 and the St. Louis River to make it all the way home.
Osvold said he talked to the farmer to whom he sold Brad, and they agreed he should stay at Osvold’s farm, called Golden Hour Acres.
“I just want to say thanks to all of the amazing people that went on this journey with him,” Osvold wrote on Instagram. “Just shows that when people worked together, great things happen.”