I just came back from the Deluxe Panda Nightcrawler program at ZooAtlanta. Nightcrawlers is one of the oldest after-hours education programs in the country. On this program we got to learn about pandas, make enrichment for the pandas, and then have a behind the scenes encounter with the pandas. Cameras aren't allowed behind the scenes at the zoo, so I don't have any pictures of myself or anyone else in the party feeding biscuits to Lun Lun. I also don't have pictures of all the cool panda gear various participants were wearing. Most of the twelve of us were local, but Lola came all the way from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and another family flew in from Fort Worth, Texas. All of us are afflicted with Obsessive Panda Disorder, but none of us seemed to be in any hurry to be cured.But, I am very fortunate the bag of straw and scent that I assembled and painted was given to Lun Lun and Xi Lan. I scented the straw with banana flavor. The photograph is Lun Lun investigating it. The video is Xi Lan having a fine time with it:
(Please ignore the background audio -- I haven't yet figured out how to delete it.)
My apologies that I was not more on the ball. Yang Yang also got an enrichment bag and did a fine job of tearing it up and rolling around and just being the wonderful, silly bear so many of us have come to love. Alas, I took blurry photographs and should have just shot video.
A big thank-you to all the nice people at the zoo, including Carvel who was our guide, and panda keepers Kate and J.T. who were very accommodating of us disrupting their routine.
Then I drove home back to the "real world" and realized that Saturday's mail was still in the box. So I went to get it and, oh my, my Master Knitter revisions were back already. Gulp.
I passed Level 1. :-)
I'm going to go watch some playoff football now. Glee! Happy dance!
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