SHAGGY MACGUFFIN AND THE MAGIC YARN

In a dusty corner of New Zealand, a few yarns of wool start to assemble in a turbulent whirlpool of sheep-scented wind. He rolls and tumbles into a ball. He wiggles his twisted arms and legs. He blinks and opens his stitched eyes.

This is Shaggy, one of Mother Nature’s secret army of climate warriors. Shaggy is made of wool.

Shaggy lives on a sheep farm. Wool is what sheep wear to stay warm in the winter, cool in the summer. 

When their wool is too long or the days are too hot, the sheep go to The Baa-Baa Shop to get a haircut.

The wool is picked and washed, combed and spun, rolled and twisted into balls of yarn.

When they aren’t making wool into yarn, the sheep wander and graze, between the island’s mossy craggled peaks and wild wet edges.

Shaggy and his sheep are always ready to snuggle, never alone. Good wool feels like a good hug.

On long summer days, Shaggy counts daisies that pepper the endless meadows. Three for a bouquet, one hundred and twenty three in the meadow!

When the clouds drip, the sheep play hide-and-seek. Wool attracts dirty oils and rejects clean water, a wet sheep smells like honey and dirt.

On Tuesday, Shaggy is knitting and the sheep are flocking.

Sent by Mother Nature, a noisy gull delivers an urgent message, Shaggy translates her squawks and cries: A penguin stuck in an oil spill needs our help!

Since the day he was shorn, Shaggy has been ready to save the planet, with the power of wool.

He jumps into a gust of wind, lasso’es a long line of coastal clouds and floats south.

On a small piece of iceberg, a penguin waits to be rescued before his ice melts in the sun.

With zig-zagging lines of yarn, Shaggy paints the black water. Wool absorbs oil and the ocean is renewed.

Happy to be swimming again, the penguin jumps into the salty blue water and pulls Shaggy to his polar ice home.

On the edge of this winter iceberg, Shaggy counts snowflakes and the penguins juggle ice fish.

Shaggy knits a fuzzy igloo city (and a few extra socks) for his new flock of winter waddling friends.