Once again, time slipped away from me and there is no new ‘toon for today, but I am working on a new Thanksgiving ‘toon and I’ll have it here next week. What’s time to a panda?

Nooz reached me this morning of the passing to the great beyond of Gao Gao, paterfamilias of the PanDiego Zoo for some 20 something years. Gao Gao was one of the great pandas. Wild born, he was brought to the Wolong base as an injured cub, rehabilitated and set free. I don’t know if he had already lost a chunk of his ear by then. Anyway, as the story goes, after being released, he must have figured what a sweet deal it was at the panda base, and he turned himself back in. Sometime later, he was assigned to PanDiego, to be the mate of the enchanting Bai Yun, who was not getting on with the older panda they had paired her with.

They went on to populate the first great panda dynasty in the US. Their grandson, by way of the effervescent Zhen Zhen, Yun Chuan is now in his grandfather’s seat in PanDiego.

Gao Gao was considered something of a stud muffin by his friends and nannies, as well as a very sweet tempered panda by his caregivers. We were all sorry to see him leave to return to China, but by all reports and pictures, he continued to charm his nannies and was given stellar care.

His last cub in PanDiego was the one and only Wu Self, Xiao Li Wu, or Mr. Wu to his friends and fans. Somewhere along the way, I started drawing him with his ear taped down, as a tribute to his dad, with his half gone ear. To hear Gao Gao tell it, he lost it in a bar fight defending Bai Yun’s honor.

In my as yet unpublished graphic novel, The Pandyland Mysteries: The Case of the Picturesque Panda, Wu loses his ear tape to the dastardly Babette De Panda, who holds it for ransom.

In this season where we are supposed to be grateful, there are arguments for and against gratitude.

I think you all know things to be grateful for are a little scarce on the ground right now, but there is still much for which to give thanks. I am inordinately thankful that you all are still here. I am thankful for pandas, and the community of people who love them. I am thankful for those who are no longer here, for the friendship and support they gave me when I needed it most. I am grateful for that strange place in my brain that spills these stories out. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that pandas saved me. At a time when optimism disappeared along with most of my income, the pandas arose and said, “Hey look! Over here! We are cute and we have cuppycakes!“

And so here we are.

I hope you are spending the day as you choose, and with whom you choose, and if you’re not, well, there is always third helpings of pie.

Be the Bear,
Bob T the T stands for Thankful,* today, Panda

*Usually it stands for “the”