The Pandas at the National Zoo Became Part of My Family
I will never forget you, and what you did for me and my mother.
In the summer of 2014, I was sitting at my desk when I received an email from my mom. “She was being so naughty today,” Mom wrote. “She was jumping off a platform onto Mommy’s head.” The “she” in this message, I knew, was referring to the giant panda Bao Bao, who had been born at the National Zoo the summer before and who had been the subject of our emails, text messages, and adoration for nearly a year.
At the time, I was 28 years old, building a career
