It was a milestone birthday at the National Zoo last weekend as Mei Xiang celebrated her 25th birthday! (Average age for wild pandas: 15-20 years, those cared for by humans can live to be 30 years old)
Yet the party was bittersweet, as it will likely be Mei's last birthday at the Zoo. The United States' agreement with China to have bears here is expiring in December - and so far, no word on if a deal to extended the bears' time in DC is in the works. If nothing is worked out, all 3 pandas...Mei, Tian Tian and Xiao Qi Ji...will be boarded onto a plane and flown to China, where they will live out their years.
If that happens, I'm gonna be a blubbering mess - I've been obsessed with pandas since I was a little girl.