Sometimes the best strategy is to hide in plain sight.

Almost there!

I’m free!!!!

One of the adoring masses brought a stuffed panda with them, and posed with it in front of our yard. Mom was snacking on bamboo, while I hid in my tree and pretended to sleep. You see, I knew that if I just ran away from the zoo, there would be search parties looking for me. Since there aren’t many baby pandas wandering the streets these days, I would have to travel undercover, and this was my chance!

I concentrated with all my might, and then it happened! I did it! I was able to make the stuffed panda come to life, and transfer part of myself to him!

I was especially proud of the button declaring my loyalties – the Weasley twins would be proud! They’re Rachel’s other boyfriends, and she’s gone to see them so many times that I’m a wee bit jealous, but I did magic just like them!

When the humans weren’t looking, I made a break for it, and ran down the hill and hid in the first building I saw, the elephant house.

I started walking down the path, and found that there were lots of other black and white animals at the zoo, although I don’t think they were quite as cute as me. Here are a few of them:

You are not my mommy!

My name is Tai Sham, and I am a very unique panda. As you can see from my about page, I used to be called Tai Shan and I lived at the Zoo in Washington DC, where a webcam tracked my every move. It seems as though there were a lot of people watching me, especially this group that calls themselves TARflies. One of these TARflies was Rachel, and she fell in love with cute lil’ me. I heard about her and was waiting and waiting for her to come visit, but she never came.

I waited and waited for many months, and she never came. Hundreds of people visited me every day, and told me that I was very cute, but it just wasn’t the same as seeing Rachel.

As the days wore on, I became more and more distraught, wondering if she would ever come to me. One day I was so sad that I curled up on my favourite* tree and cried, and started to wonder if I would ever meet her.

As I sat there, a plan started to develop in my mind. If Rachel wouldn’t come to me, I would go to her! I knew that Rachel loved to watch 24 so I started to wonder – what would Jack Bauer do? He would find a way to escape, and so would I! And so I practiced climbing and jumping and running, building up my strength and endurance for the journey that lay ahead.

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* I know that Rachel is Canadian, and I’m hoping that if I use Canadian spellings, it will help me win her heart