Photo by Daniel @ 127.Ø.Ø.1>

The Post offered up a panda pregnancy update this morning that contained nary a scrap of news. Not that we can blame Michael Ruane for teasing us with vague reports that Mei Xiang has refused to allow zookeepers to perform an ultrasound on her of late. (She did the same thing when she was pregnant with Tai Shan! But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything!). Panda Fever is practically a religion around these parts, and with young Tai Shan now almost fully grown, D.C. is starting to get desperate for a brand new bundle of joy. It’s been nearly three years of false pregnancies for Mei Xiang in the interim (not to mention the 4+ years before her only successful pregnancy), and we should know either way in the next couple of days whether the latest attempt at artificial insemination has worked. Either a new little stick o’ butter will shoot out of Mei’s uterus, or we’ll have to settle for just another false alarm. In the meantime, the zoo’s Panda House remains closed until further notice.