Animal Diaries Archive

Marvellous MacKenzie

7 January 2005

Here at the Kids Zoo we have one little kid that stands out from the rest... in more ways than one! Not only does he usually choose to 'stand apart' from the crowd, but his fantastic hairstyle (or should that be 'furstyle'?) is one that many of the guests who come to the Zoo become jealous of! This fellow is MacKenzie, a lovely little Angora goat kid. The Angora is unique amongst most other goat breeds, as it is bred for its beautiful curly wool, known as 'mohair' (quite different from 'angora wool', which actually comes from a type of rabbit!). Mohair comes in either flat wavy locks, or very tight little ringlets, but either way, a goat covered in a magnificent set of shiny white curls is certainly a sight to behold. Naturally, such a hairdo means that MacKenzie needs a bit more grooming than our other animals. To keep him looking lovely, he receives regular baths, brushings and blow-dries, and we even use a type of shampoo that's used on show dogs and horses! But aside from his awesome curls, it's MacKenzie's personality that really makes him different. Since the day he arrived, he's always been a bit of a 'shy boy', preferring to hang at the back of the pen and wait patiently for his food or his bottle, rather than pushing and shoving up the front with the other billy kids. He loves to play 'catch me if you can', making us keepers run around in circles to get him when we need to take him out of his pen… but when we pick him up, he instantly melts into our arms, leaning in for a big snuggle! So even though he seems very aloof to most visitors, we know he's a big softie at heart, going as far as letting us hold him on his back and cradle him like a baby. We're sure you'll pause to have a look at MacKenzie whenever you come by Kids Zoo, he's simply a kid that can't be missed! Barbara