Tag Archives: National Zoo

Scandal in the Panda House?

Uh oh…Bubba has been discovered spying on the back room deal making meeting between Pinky and the Meihems! Is this a political scandal in the making? What kind of deal is Pinky making with the Meihems? Is Bob going to be out on his fuzzy ears? And where IS Mittens?

Just what kind of deal is Pinky making?

I hope everyone had fun celebrating the Meihems’ birthday this weekend! Stay tuned, because Pinky and Bubba have a birthday coming up, not to mention some more political chicanery of some sort or another. And will we ever find out what happens to Mittens? Is he coming back? We hope not, but Pinky’s poofing is not always permanent. (Except as regards the Meihems and ~~brother~~ sister Po.)

I would settle for Secretary of Binky Bars.

Be the Bear
Bob T Panda

It’s Time to Party Like a Panda!!!!

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Oh my, it is the birthday celebration for Atlanta’s favorite sweethearts, the Meihem sisters, as they turn three years old! I still remember the morning the twins were born. I was…um… checking in on Facebook, because the panda keepers at Zoo Atlanta were pretty sure that mama Lun Lun was pregnant, but they had NO idea it was twins!*

Along with thousands of other panda fanatics, I was glued to the internet, awaiting the entrance of another baby panda to the world, when a cub came shooting out into the universe. (They do seem to come out at great speed). Lun Lun lept into mom mode, but turns out she wasn’t done yet. Less than a half hour later, another cub came rushing out and then we had what you might call a situation.

I did what any other right thinking panda fan would do, under those circumstances. I called another panda fan (Cyndi A) and we danced around our respective kitchens screaming like a girl.

So without further ado, I now present some of my favorite cartoon moments with the Meihems, starting with the Wu Self’s reaction to the news!

Dis. Will. Not. Stand!

Of course all the other panda moms were on the phone to Lun Lun to congratulate her…

“Well Bless your Heart” is not always a compliment

When the twins were born, everyone thought that they were boys, along with their sibling Po. Boy did we all have a surprise coming!

Atlanta twin panda cubs Mei Lun and Mei Huan and older prother Po

Huzzah! a guest appearance by little Po! And is that a cameo appearance by Mr. Bun?

Oh…yeah…how could we forget Pinky?

Huzzah! It’s Bert and his brother Ernie!

…and their jammies! Huzzah!

But after we found out that the Meihems were girls, they promptly joined the Panda Scouts and went to work selling cookies! Binky Bars, anyone? But of course, Pinky threw a ~~monkey~~ panda wrench into the works…

George Washington Bridge lane closure satire.

Princess Pinky Bao Bao…what have you done now?

Time to call in …Inspector panda!

But in the end, all was well that ended well, after a whole bunch more stuff happened, (which, if you had Book 5 of the Panda Chronicles, Pandapocalypse Now! you would know what happened!) and now, it’s time for some cake!!!!

There must be cake!

I hope you enjoyed my Salute to Meihem! Join us next month when we celebrate Pinky’s third birthday and Bubba’s first!!!!

Be the Bear!
Bob T Panda

*Not only did they not know it was going to be twins, with pandas, you don’t even know for sure if they are pregnant or not.

Double “O” Bubba: A Spy for All Seasons

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Uh oh. Has Bubba gotten a little too big for his cubberalls? He should know better than to spy and tattle on his big sister. I mean, what kind of cabinet post can he expect in Pinky’s administration if he keeps this up?

And just what do the Meihems have in mind for Unka Bob in the Pink House?

Oh Bubba! What were you thinking? And now that Mr. Bun is back, don’t you think Pinky should treat him better?

I just want to give a shout out to all my new readers here at the Panda Chronicles! Helloooo Panda Fans!!! Last week was a tough one, out in the real world, and we have retreated to the world of pandas to catch our breath, before we go out there again and try to make the world a better place. And if you need another dose of pandishness, check out Pinky’s Aunty Sandy’s video of her little brother being a pest here!

Don’t forget to tune in on Friday for the Meihems’ pandapalooza celebrating their third birthday on July 16th. (I believe they are getting their cakes on Friday, so if you want to watch that live, check on the Zoo Atlanta Panda Page!)

Be the Bear!
Don’t spy on Pinky!
Bob T Panda

Politics Makes Strange Denfellows

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Where have the Meihems been? We have hardly seen hide nor hair…um..fur of them since Bob hired them to be his political consultants. Personally, I think they have been so absorbed with planning for their gala third birthday party, (TWO CAKES!!!!!!) that they have forgotten all about Bob and Pinky and, not to cast aspersions on their southern belle-ness, but…politics makes strange denfellows.

But now the cakes have been ordered, and their dresses shopped for and they have remembered that they have an important client. But have the events of the last weeks incited a shift in the political cosmos? Is Bob ready to through in the towel and join forces with Pinky, in order to defeat a terrible foe?

Whoever could it be, to see Pinky in her lair?

And just because Pinky is ahead in all the polls (well, at least the polls at the National Zoo) it doesn’t mean she can coast from now until November. There may be sneaky things up certain sleeves (do cats have sleeves?) All I can say is stay tuned!!!

By the by, this coming Saturday is the Meihem girls third birthday and the team at Zoo Atlanta is indeed making them TWO special ice fruity cakes to celebrate the occasion. I hope they remembered to invite Pinky, because, you know how Pinky hates to be ignored! This week’s Fabulous Furry Friday will therefore be dedicated to all things Meihem, so be sure to tune in and gather round your computer and have some cuppycakes with the girls!

Till then,
Be the Bear!
Bob T Panda

Where is Mittens

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Something happened at the debate between Pinky, Bob and Mittens and nobody will tell us what happened. Where IS Mittens? Investigations are now underway, in an attempt to get to the bottom of his mysterious disappearance. Pinky isn’t talking and Mehitabel is claiming debate moderator privilege. Is that a real thing?

Uh oh. Is Bubba about to rat someone out?

If you have any information leading to the return of Mittens, ~~we hope you’ll just keep it to yourself~~ call the #WhereIsMittens hotline at 1-800-BAD-CATZ

Bubba better hope that Pinky is not listening in on the Panda House Party line. I don’t think Pinky will take kindly to any perceived disloyalty.

If you are enjoying these cartoons and wish you could read a whole lot of them at once, even during a power outage, consider adding The Panda Chronicles books to your personal collection! you can find them here! Your book purchases help support The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire! (That’s me!)

Be the Bear,
Bob T Panda

Meanwhile, at the Panda House…

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Did you see what happened at the last debate? I was out in the kitchen, checking to see if the cookie fairy had brought me some cookies during the night and I looked away from the television just at the crucial moment, and when I looked back, Mittens was gone! Poof! Just like that! And meanwhile, back at the Panda House… Mei was doing some fast thinking and making calculations on how she could keep her daughter out of hot water.

Last week over in the Twittersphere, some people were having fun with the names of Beatle’s songs and panda fan extraordinaire Anne Lane Witt came up with this one, which I…um…borrowed for this ‘toon:

What happens at the debate, states at the debate…

I hope everyone is planning to have a safe and sane 4th of July, and NOT follow the example of the panda kindergarten, who are anything but sane.

uh. oh.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend. Not that artists/writers/cartoonists get 3 day weekends. Oh no! But you all go and have a good time. Don’t give it a second thought. (But if you could send some cake my way, I would take back that pissy little rant. Really.)

Be the Bear!
Bob T. Panda

And lest I forget our neighbors to the north, Happy Panada Day!!!!

Oh Panada, Oh Panada, how tasty are your maple leaves….

A Public Service Announcement.

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Mr. Badger just returned from a trip to the mountains of our neighbors to the north, and one of the things he saw while there lead me to think that the time was NOW for this very important public service announcement. What he saw was a grizzly bear crossing the highway just a little way in front of his car, and then what he saw was a bunch of people following it with cameras at the ready. I am not making this up.

I am only going to say this once (a year):

Do. Not. Try. To. Take. A. Selfie. With. A. Grizzly!!!!!

Hey! That reminds me of a song!

…if I were a panda, yadda dah dah da- da- da- AAARGH! I can’t stop!!!!!

And now, our Salute to Stupid Selfies!!!!

Coming to a mountain road in France, really soon:

Who says real life can’t be funny?

What was that they said about being prohibited from taking a selfie with a tiger?

Much better to take a selfie with pandas!

You know we’re just kidding about this, right?

And then Pinky thought this would be a really great fundraiser for her campaign…

I really had no idea what she was up to.

And then maybe since you can’t take a selfie with a tiger, you could take one at…for instance…the running of the bulls!

AAAAAAhhhHHHHHH!

Probably safer to just take a selfie in the Oval Office during your White House Tour…

Mei should not be getting all excited like this in her condition!

“Get those pandas off my desk!”

Have a Fabulous Furry Friday, and while you are having a Fabulous Fourth of July, you leave off with the fireworks and just load up on hot dogs and beans.

Be the Bear,
Bob T Panda

Mr. Bun Returns

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I know it has taken a little too long for the return of Mr. Bun but in ‘toon time, it has been no time at all. And isn’t it wonderful that Pinky is so technologically tuned in? Do we know where Mittens has been poofed to? Do we care? No, all we care about is that Mr. Bun returns to the place he belongs…with Pinky.

Of course, if Pinky DOES become president, how will it look if she brings her stuffie bunny to the inauguration?

Oh, Mr. Bun! Where have you been?

As a side note, we’ve been having a few technical difficulties over here, which for the moment seem to have resolved themselves. (That’s how I usually resolve technical difficulties: shut down laptop, go to dinner, have a cuppycake and hope that whatever was wrong no longer is when I turn on the computer again. ) For some reason I was not able to upload today’s new cartoon, and I was afraid I was going to have to figure out some low tech work around – print and deliver personally to hundreds of people around the world, perhaps? But while that might have been lots-o-fun, the time required and the cost of world-wide personal delivery was beyond my resources. So I am happy to report that the problem seems to have gone away by itself. Huzzah!

We will have more from Mr. Bun this Wednesday, and then who knows what I will have prepared for you for next week. The Tour de France is coming up soon, so we will revisit the danger of selfies at the Tour, as well as other selfie hazards in Fabulous Furry Friday’s encore extravaganza!

Don’t forget to…

Be the Bear
Bob T Panda

POOF!

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I know you have been waiting for this. Guess who found her magical wand and brought it with her to the debate? If you guessed Pinky, you should give yourself a gold star on your calendar today. POOF!

Poof!

And isn’t it sweet of Bob to defend Pinky? You can almost hear him say, “Nobody cares about your darned birth certificate, Pinky.” Hard to say whether Mei is going to be mad at Pinky for bringing her wand to the debate or not.

and now, for a small rant…

The other day, as I was romping around on Facebook, I came across an ad for t-shirts and coffee mugs that had a familiar (and one of my favorite) comics characters on them. But as I looked more closely at the website, it didn’t look quite right to me. For one thing, there was a slight, but significant discrepancy in way the name of the comic was spelled, and it was not from the website that I know and love.

I decided to contact the real website and say, hey…I saw this and it didn’t look right. Apologies, if this really is one of your sales portals, but I thought you should know about it and here’s the link. Today I got an email back from the website and they thanked me for contacting them and that I was correct, these were NOT authorized products. They are going after these guys and I hope they nail their asses to the wall.

It is hard enough to make a living in any of the arts without someone siphoning dollars of the fruits of my creative labors. The more famous you get, the more likely you are to have copyright infringement. And at least currently, you don’t have to register copyright to own it. All you need to do is create it. There are legal and financial benefits to registering your copyright, but for your rank and file artist who is just scrapping by, the cost of registering each piece is prohibitive. Yes, you can register collections, but that does not have the same clout as registering individual pieces. Copyright must be transferred in writing. If you buy a painting from me, I still own the copyright, unless I specifically transfer it to you. So I can still make reproductions of something that I have sold and you can’t. (At least you shouldn’t)

So if you see stuff for sale from The Panda Chronicles and it didn’t come from here or here or here, the money is not going into my pocket. and you do want me to be able to keep doing these ‘toons, don’t you? Remember, I post all my ‘toons on line for the low, low price of absolutely nothing, because I know what it’s like to have a limited budget. But I appreciate book and swag purchases a lot! (Not to mention sales of original art and original cartoons.) I appreciate everyone who reads my stuff and shares it with their friends. Huzzah! Keep on…

Being the Bears!
Bob T. Panda

It’s a Beautiful Tail!

22 Replies

You knew it would come to this. Following the scripts of the various debates that we have been bludgeoned with, politicians trading insults…Liars lying about previous lies, BEARS BEHAVING BADLY!!!!! Is this the panda kindergarten? A Beautiful Tail? Looks a little short to me.

“This is not a loser tail!!!!!”

Are Bob and Pinky reaching a new consensus? Could Bob be inspired to concede and get behind Pinky’s candidacy? Stay tuned! anything can happen where pandas are involved.

Daddy Panda News for Father’s Day

Meanwhile among real pandas and the people who love them, we have just learned sad news from San Diego Zoo. The rock star, stud muffin wild guy panda with one short ear and extra furry feet, father of five fabulous cubbies here at SDZ, Gao Gao, has been diagnosed with a very bad heart condition. They think he is around 26. Being wild born, they don’t know his exact age. He has been in somewhat compromised health for a few years now and they have been monitoring his heart condition carefully. We don’t know how long he has left, but I can assure you that the veterinary staff at SDZ is doing everything they can do for him.

Gao Gao has an interesting story of how he came to live at the San Diego Zoo. As a two year old, he was found injured and brought to one of the panda research centers to be treated. After he healed, he was released. But finding that being fed and waited upon was far superior to having to fight for territory and scarce resources, he returned to the center and asked to be readmitted. Eventually, he went to live in San Diego with the Beautiful Bai Yun and together they had five cubs, the last of which is Xiao Liwu, known to his friends and fans as Mr. Wu.

A panda fun fact about Gao Gao is that he has one short ear, most likely the result of a fight when he was a wild cub fending for himself. It is the reason my cartoon version of Mr. Wu always has his left ear taped down! It is a tribute to his dad!

I know many people who have not been to a zoo in over 30 years have an antiquated and unfortunate preconception about zoos. yes, there are still some of those horrible zoos with too small cages and depressed animals, but most zoos in North America, Japan, and Europe have taken huge strides in providing comfort and engagement for their animals, and San Diego Zoo is one of the best. Yes, it would be wonderful if panda’s traditional roaming areas were still intact, but the virgin forested areas where they once roamed are reduced to a tiny percentage of what they once were. But the pandas that live in these well staffed and well appointed zoos live the life of Riley (whoever he is) and generally live 10 to 15 years longer than their wild counterparts.

Happy Fathers Day to those who celebrate their relationship with their dads as something wonderful and nurturing. and for those who don’t…well…go have a cuppycake or two and think about someone who loved you.

Be the Bear
Bob T. panda