This was making the rounds with a fury earlier this month. A woman in Virginia was purporting to have evidence of a red panda (which, incidentally, looks not much like a red fox) in a suburban backyard. Sure, it was a heck of a haul from Norfolk, where an red panda went missing from the Virginia Zoo months ago, but crazier things have happened, right?
Right, but not in this case. In this case, it was a prank that spread a little too far and a little too fast. Someone took a photo of a red panda at a zoo and jokingly sent it to someone else as a "Hey, look what's in my yard!" joke. That person immediately posted it on the Internet where, it is said, a lie can run around the world before the truth gets its shoes on.
Not that it was a deliberate lie, and I'm sure no one wanted it to build up and then dash the hopes of the Norfolk keepers. It just goes to show that once something is online, it can definitely take a life of its own.
I have an annoying suspicion that this is going to keep popping up for sometime...
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