CAPTURED!!! They got him!

[jberryhill]

http://m.washingtonpost.com/local/red-panda-missing-at-national-zoo/2013/06/24/350e8b4c-dcdd-11e2-85de-c03ca84cb4ef_story.html



Panda-crazy Washington went to Code Red, from the Twitteropolis to the streets of Adams Morgan, where Rusty was nabbed.

“Crated and captured!” a zoo spokeswoman announced a little after 2 p.m.

The zoo tweeted a picture of a thirsty-looking Rusty safely back behind mesh, taking a drink from a water bottle. He was reported to be in good health in the zoo’s animal hospital Monday evening.

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. thought this thread would be about snowden

[npk]

2. I thought this thread was about Beiber

The LA Prosecutor should be putting up a dragnet to get that little shit.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. I expected a Panda Express reference.

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. me too... hey isn't this bait and switch??

[burnodo]

12. everything else is

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. yep

[bluedigger]

4. I'm looking forward to the NSA telling us how they did it.

Oh, wait, that would be a security breach, wouldn't it?

But seriously, I'm glad they found him safe and sound.

[elleng]

5. A Panda Escapes From the Zoo, and Social Media Swoop In With the Net.

There was an important Supreme Court ruling early in the day. An international fugitive was possibly on a flight from Moscow to Cuba. The Dow was diving. But in the nation’s capital, Rusty the red panda, who disappeared from the National Zoo, hijacked the news cycle on Monday.

To help find Rusty, a raccoon-size mammal with a striped tail and moon-shaped face, the zoo turned to social media, and suddenly half of official Washington broke from Serious Events to tune in to the saga of the runaway panda.

On Twitter and Facebook, the hunt for 11-month-old Rusty, whom the zoo acquired three weeks ago as a partner to a female panda named Shama, exploded in a mix of concern, humor and, this being Washington, the goring of political oxen.

“Rusty the Red Panda eats shoots and leaves,” Jake Tapper, CNN’s chief Washington correspondent, filed to Twitter.

Doug Stafford, a senior aide to Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, called the escape a cautionary tale. “If we don’t use drones to spy on everyone, the pandas will win,” he wrote.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/us/a-parallel-search-for-a-missing-panda.html?hp

[Douglas Carpenter]

6. kick!!! This is a story that needs to go VIRAL!!!!

[pinboy3niner]

7. "Rusty's Story: I fought the law and the law won"

The National Zoo always gets its man...er...escapee.

[Buzz Clik]

8. No bullets fired?

[jberryhill]

9. Thank goodness it wasn't the LA Zoo

Does LA have a zoo, or would that be like a having a sand museum in Arizona?

[Cleita]

11. LA does have a zoo. One for exotic animals.

I used to go there when I lived there. It's in Griffith Park.

[jberryhill]

13. I only saw the one at the tar pits

But the animals don't move

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. Yeah, and they're kinda boney too.

[Cleita]

10. It was the talk of the town, DC town that is. Nothing else made the media

air waves until that iconic moment when Rusty was captured. Who the "H" really cares about what else Congress and the Supremes are doing to screw us? This was the perfect distraction of the day to keep from having to report the news that needs vaseline, in the immortal words of a governor from Maine.

[okaawhatever]

14. Rusty will soon become a political pawn.

Republicans: Rusty; another example of a do-nothing federal worker.

Democrats: Rusty; another American screwed by gop cuts to food assistance. Budget for his shoots cut 15%

[jberryhill]

19. Pandas are Chinese, right?

I don't think we can rule out Chinese influence here.

[pinboy3niner]

22. They're probably after those four National Zoo laptops

But Rusty's being cagey about their whereabouts.

[jberryhill]

27. I think Rusty is going to be cagey for a while

He was transferred to the National Zoo because they are hoping he'll mate with a female there. He was probably checking out the restaurants in Adams Morgan and planning take her to dinner somewhere nice.

[okaawhatever]

23. Friggin' A!! That little rascal was trying to make off with zoo secrets!! nt

[elleng]

35. I think he's from Nebraska!!!

Yes! 'just in from a children’s zoo in Nebraska!'

[jberryhill]

37. I think we'll need a look at the birth certificate

[tofuandbeer]

18. Cute!

[DeSwiss]

20. If he got captured.....

...he must not be a high school dropout.

- K&R

[HiPointDem]

21. they were monitoring his emails.

[pinboy3niner]

25. He bamboozled them for a while

[jberryhill]

28. Shoot!

Good one.

[NCLefty]

24. Shoulda been a snow fox, found in his den.

Snow Den Raided, Fugitive Apprehended!

[libodem]

26. Pandamonium ensues

[Beartracks]

29. Canned a panda! n/t

[jberryhill]

30. This is base pandering

[pinboy3niner]

34. Funny--I coulda sworn it was bearitone

[libodem]

31. They sure did

[freshwest]

32. Poor little guy. Hope he's safe and happy back in his little world.

[tblue]

33. Cutie face! nt

[jberryhill]

38. Thank you

The panda is not too shabby either

[rpannier]

36. good he's okay and safe nt