Say what you will about obsessive panda fans becoming overly emotional about Tai Shan leaving D.C. this morning for China, but there’s one group of people who have every right to cry: the National Zoo’s panda team.

Animal keeper Laurie Thompson has been taking care of pandas at the Zoo for 15 years, and has worked with Butterstick, as he’s commonly known, since he was literally the size of a stick of butter. Watching him get loaded up in his traveling crate and placed on a FedEx truck bound for Dulles International Airport this morning was by no means the easiest thing Thompson’s ever had to do.

“It’s a little surreal,” she said. “I don’t think it hits you right away.”

Tai Shan departed the National Zoo at 9 a.m. Thursday after a carefully rehearsed and orchestrated move. Zookeepers led the 4-year-old panda into his crate, loaded up a supply of bamboo, then slowly moved the animal onto the truck via two different forklifts. The whole process took about an hour from start to finish, plenty of time for the emotions of the last several months of preparation to sink in. There were several sets of teary eyes among Zoo staffers.

“It’s very sad that he’s leaving,” said fellow panda keeper Mary Charlton. “But we are happy for him that he gets to help save his species, and gets to experience China.”