The Oakland Zoo’s aging petting yard goat Jellybean is off in the great petting zoo in the sky, as her arthritic condition became too much to bear, and the zoo "made the difficult decision" for July 3 to be her final day.

Our stories about the very exemplary Oakland Zoo are often quite uplifting, but this one is not. KRON4 reports that the Oakland Zoo had to “say goodbye” to a popular goat in their beloved petting yard, the geriatric goat Jellybean. "On July 3rd, we made the difficult decision to say goodbye to one of our most beloved goats, Jellybean," the zoo said in a statement, clearly meaning this as a euphemism that the goat had to be put down.

“Jellybean was a gentle and loving presence in the Petting Yard, who left a lasting impression on everyone she met,” the zoo said in a Monday Facebook post. “Guests of all ages came to know and adore her, many of whom returned to the Zoo just to spend time with her.”

The zoo also included a statement from Jellybean’s apprentice keeper. “As one of our geriatric goats, Jelly has paved the way for voluntary participation in medical procedures,” the keeper said. “Battling arthritis, Jelly was trained to participate voluntarily in hoof trims and injections to keep her as comfortable as possible. Furthermore, she allowed our vet team to perform laser therapy to soothe her aching joints with no manual restraint required. Jelly has made the team incredibly proud with her bravery and dedication to training, and she will leave a lasting mark on all of us."

Jellybean the goat of the Oakland Zoo will be put down tomorrow due to health problems that are severely negatively affecting her quality of life. Immortalize her .
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The post ends with the statement “Thank you, Jellybean, for the joy you brought to so many. Our hearts go out to everyone who knew and loved her.” So clearly, they are sadly referring to Jellybean in the past tense.

But on a more inspiring note, one Reddit user asked for people to make memorial portraits of the fallen goat Jellybean. Our favorite is the time-lapse sketch of Jellybean seen above, which really turned our hearts to jelly.  

Related: The SF Zoo’s 56-Year-Old Female Chimpanzee Maggie Has Died [SFist]

Image: Oakland Zoo via Facebook