About

Hello! My name is Tai Sham and I’m a stuffed panda. I’m not your average stuffed panda, though. You see, I house a little bit of the spirit of Tai Shan – the much beloved baby panda cub at the National Zoo.

As Tai Shan, I have many, many fans who watch me day and night via a web cam. One fan was a bit hard to win over. She kept complaining that every time she watched, all I did was sleep. Slowly but surely, however, she saw me wriggle, crawl and toddle all over the place. She was in love. I could feel her love flowing towards me via the camera. I wanted to meet her!

I found out she had some friends who live not too far from the Zoo. They come to visit me from time to time, but they never bring this special person with them. They told me her name – Rachel – and said that she lived far away and couldn’t come to visit because she was trapped in a horrible job and didn’t have any money. Knowing a little something about feeling trapped, I just fell in love with her and wanted to meet her even more.

More of Rachel’s friends came. They came from far away, but not the same far away as Rachel. I don’t understand why they couldn’t have brought her with them, though. I started to question their friendship, but they did agree to help me write to Rachel. I wrote her some postcards and they mailed them for me (I hadn’t figured out how to get to the post office yet). I never heard back from Rachel, though. Had I misinterpreted her love? Did she really care?

I had to find out! One day, one of Rachel’s friends brought a little stuffed panda to the zoo. Hmmm. The stuffed panda was almost as cute as I am and it was outside of the exhibit. It was also small and it would be much easier for him to sneak around than it would be for me to. I concentrated and concentrated and managed to put a bit of my spirit into the stuffed panda – enough to bring him to life! I quickly made my escape and went in search of far away. I had to find my one true love – Rachel!