“Excuse me?” I knocked on the door to the panda zoo office.

“One minute, please.” The person on the other side of the door replied.

I heard the shuffling of some papers followed by some footsteps. Then the door opened.

“Are you Jill?” The man asked me.

“Yes, I’m here for panda zoo keeper job?”

“Of course, nice to meet you. Please come with me.”

The man bowed and held out his hand for to me to shake it. I nodded back and shook his hand then followed him into his office.

“I’ll just ask you a few questions and then I’ll show you our pandas, okay?”

“That’s fine.” I smiled politely. I found out the owner’s name was Kris and he asked me some business-related questions and some questions about my family and job experience. After about three minutes, he invited me into the panda exhibit down the hall. My entire face brightened up the instant I saw the furry black and white bears. They were mostly lying around sleeping, but they were still adorable to me.

“How many are there?” I walked right up to the fence and looked around.

“Five: three adult women, one child, and one young adult male.” Kris pointed at the biggest cave in the middle of the exhibit. “The young adult male mostly hangs out in there.”

“Is he okay? What’s his name?” I squinted trying to see into the dark cave.

“His name is Tao. And he’s fine. He pretty quiet and prefers to be alone most of the time. Shall we go inside?”

I nodded and Kris unlocked the fence door.

“He isn’t sick, is he? Tao?” I walked closer to the opening of the cave. The other pandas around us glanced at us lazily.

Kris shook his head. “Oh, no. He’s always like this.”

“Ah…alright, well I’ll do my best.” I smiled at Kris.

Kris nodded. “Good.” He handed me some bamboo and cleaning supplies. “You’ll need this if you want everyone to like you.”

I chuckled and took them. “Thanks a lot. I’ll get started right now.”

“Good. If you have any questions, I’ll be in my office.” Kris nodded once more at me and left the panda exhibit, closing and the door behind him.

I took a deep breath and examined the entire exhibit, memorizing eating areas and places more dirty than the others. I moved around the bamboo piles, refilling them and pulling out the old ones. The pandas around me glanced at me as I worked. Because they weren’t threatened by my appearance, they just watched me or laid their heads back down and continued sleeping. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement from the cave. When I turned toward it, I saw Tao’s head sticking out from the darkness. He was staring at me intensely. I smiled a little and noticed a bamboo pile nearby the cave that needed to be re-filled. When I moved closer to the pile, Tao scooted further into the cave. His eyes never left my figure.

“Hello.” I smiled and held out my hand toward him while crouching down to put down fresh bamboo.

Tao’s gaze moved to my hand. After a second, he slowly inched his head forward and sniffed my hand.

“I heard you’re the quiet one, huh?” I carefully placed my hand on his head to pat it gently.

He didn’t move. I couldn’t tell if he felt threatened or not but he didn’t seem too relaxed.

“I see it’s gonna take a while for us to get acquainted. That’s fine.” I stood back up and moved to a dirtier part of the exhibit and set down the cleaning supplies to put on rubber gloves.

I heard a small grunt behind me and grinned a little. I love pandas so much. They are so cute.