It has been an exciting week in pandyland…the Giant Panda Zoo Award winners were announced, (Princess Pinky: WHAT do you MEAN I din’t win?  i demand a recount!!!!!) and San Diego Zoo’s current number one son is now home alone as his brother (the former number one son) has headed to a new destiny in China.

I couldn’t resist one last farewell scene.

Get out your hankies.

Leaving the nest is never easy.

Coming soon, exiting news from The Panda Chronicles in support of Pandas International!

And in other Panda Satire news….Those who receive my newsletter (what? you mean you haven’t subscribed yet? Go up to the form that says: Get Even More Pandas, put ‘cher email address in there and then you’ll know before everyone else!) know that I am working on a cookbook with author and Che de Cuppycake Vicky Vladic!  She is writing (and testing!) the recipes and I will be doing the illustrations.  We don’t know exactly when it will be finished, but you might want to up your cuppycake consumption, so you will be ready when The Panda Chronicles Cuppycake Cookbook hits the shelves of your local and virtual bookstores.

Be the Bear,
Bob T. Panda

We knew it was coming: the trauma of sweet Yun Zi going off to China, after 4 years living with mom, dad, and his self absorbed little brother.  Part of the deal we make with China is that all cubs born here get re-patriated to China, after they reach 2-4 years of age.  We don’t welcome it, but there is a good reason for it.  Because of the small captive population of pandas, It’s important that we don’t have  pairings between relatives that are too close.

We recently got word that he’ll be leaving on January 11th, just a few days away. Maybe he’ll leave his little brother his baseball cap.

There’s no place like home…

Just because it’s the way things are, doesn’t mean we can’t make fun of it.

Be the bear,
Bob T. Panda

31 days of pandas was fun and a big success, IMHO, (don’t cha just love how young and hip I sound when I use those twitter/IM all cap-letters thingies?  yeah, me neither.) It was really fun to dive deep into some story lines, and not keep people waiting for a week or more

to
see
what
was
going
to
happen.

But, I can’t keep that up all year, and get anything else done, like getting the Book of Wu ready to go to print. And other stuff, which will be revealed for the first time in my upcoming newsletter…um…hopefully next week. It’s all good, it’s all fun, and it’s all pandas! Huzzah!

Before I share this weeks encore presentations with you, I want to take a minute to say a fond farewell, to someone who was a regular follower and commenter here at The Panda Chronicles, and also on other panda forums around the web.  She went by the name Grammmie Cooper, and yes, that was with 3 ‘m’s’. I did not know her particulars, other than it was clear from her notes to me, that she was quite elderly, in poor health off and on, and her main joy in life was watching the pandas. Real pandas, I mean, on the various panda cams around the world. She was an early, enthusiastic supporter of my cartoons, and commented frequently.  She was not afraid to tell me that she thought I was stepping out of line when I would let young Mr Wu go off carousing with the panda kindergarten, and she was just as willing to express her delight with other drawings.   She got great joy and comfort from watching pandas. If there is any kind of afterlife, I’d like to think that pandas are there, too, bringing comfort and joy to the inhabitants, teaching people the art of somersaulting down a grassy slope, and then sitting around eating cuppycakes.

Panda on, Grammmie.

And now, let there be pandas!

Pinky wanted me to run these cartoons again!

Oh Princess Pinky, mom has a trick or two up her paw, I think…

Beware, the power of the paw!

Be the Bear,
Bob T. Panda

Princess Pinky says, she is thankful for cuppycakes and da panda kindygarten and her magical wand!

Be the (thankful) Bear!

Bob T. Panda