The National Zoo is saying goodbye to Bao Bao.
The panda cub will relocate to China in early 2017. This is all part of the zoo's cooperative breeding agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association. The arrangement calls for all panda cubs born in D.C. to move to China by the time they reach four years of age.
Bao Bao turns four this summer.
Is there anyone in Washington more beloved than Bao Bao?
As the four-year-old prepares to relocate to the Chinese Wildlife Conservation Association, the panda's popularity is polling at an all time high.
In this WUSA9 poll that I completely made up, 99.5% of people approve of Bao Bao and just less than 1% disapprove...and that's within the make-believe margin of error.
She arrived in D.C. four years ago, youthful, with some bounce in her stumble. While her inexperience led to some missteps on the global stage, she learned quickly how to wield the power of the people.
After four years, she leaves visibly older. Her fur is a little whiter with a few battle scars from bamboo issues, but she has done what most fail to do in the Nation's Capital: bring people together.
Unity feels like a rare thing these days. In fact, with fewer than 2,000 giant pandas on the planet, Bao Bao's entire existence is rare.
But she wasn't perfect, far from it.
So often awkward and clumsy performing some of the simplest tasks. Like that time she unwittingly trampled all over her first birthday cake or when she pulverized her third birthday cake.
She touched all our hearts.
She played in the snow with the grace of a rolling stone. And painted with the finesse of, well, of a bear.
But, here's the truth, we never needed her to be good at that stuff. We just needed her to do two things: survive and be cute.
Perhaps it was those adorable imperfections that endeared us to Bao Bao. Perhaps in her we see some of our own shortcomings. Perhaps that's why it's so hard to say bye bye, Bao Bao.
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