Today we celebrated Foxie’s 33rd birthday. The bonanza included a happy birthday banner, loads of presents, coconuts, strings of cheerios and pretzels, magazines stuffed with dried fruit, and more! All of this was donated by blog readers and supporters. Foxie thanks you! She had a great time, as did the rest of the chimps. Here’s a video of Foxie working on a raisin board. More to come!
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
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And a good time was had by all!! What fun for Foxie and the others. It was great seeing Trixie move with her as Foxie started to leave. I am looking forward to more photos and videos of the birthday party.
I hope folks will indulge me for a bit ~ I really want to thank all the people who came and/or contributed to the chimpanzee enrichment making party this weekend….it’s was unbelievably great! J.B. Mulcahy, Patty Clark, Shelley Winfrey, Audrey & Jim Spencer, Robbi and Dick Brown, Drew Nichol, Kathy Benson, Brian Osborne, Cindy Marks, Tom & Jacky Pence and Jean Burnt.
We had such a blast making a ton of enrichment things at Patty’s wonderful ranch for the chimps and I can’t tell you how much it warms my heart watching them enjoy some of the treats!!!
Margaret and Karen, Shirley, Denice, Dee, Debbie, Shelly C and all of you “regular bloggers” 😉 you were certainly there with us in spirit.
Dee asked if we were going to post information about the party – here are some examples of the things we did but it’s very important to note that one of the Sanctuary staff has to know exactly what’s in the treats – there are some specific things that the chimps can have and things that they can’t for a variety of reasons.
1. Paper towel treats – empty paper towel rolls that will be filled with shredded paper, a few peanuts in the shell and a few pieces of dried fruit
2. Coconuts – that we will wrap in any kind of paper and then tie it up with string
3. Popcorn bags – paper bags that we will fill with popcorn (already popped, no butter or salt) and tie at the top with string
4. Food garlands – we will thread food on a string (cheerios, small pretzels and dried fruit)
5. Raisin boards – Jim Spencer is providing wooden boards with cut-outs small enough for us to stuff raisins in
6. Treat tubes – Tom Pence is providing 12-inch lengths of PVC tubing and we will (thinly) line the inside of the tube with peanut butter that has been mixed with fruit and nuts
7. Presents! – we will wrap small boxes (shoe sized or a little larger) filled with a variety of items inside such as magazines, shoes, hats, socks, plastic mirrors (all gifts will have a tiny bit of food inside).
For the Cle Elum Seven!
Shelly
Shelly ~ Thank you for coming up with this idea for the enrichment party!! It wouldn’t have happened without you! We all had SO MUCH FUN & we were so lucky that Patty offered to have it at her beautiful ranch! It was a perfect!! I really enjoyed the presentation by J.B., and it was great to meet all of the wonderful people who came. I hope we will be able to have many more get togethers like this for the Cle Elum Seven!!
Seattle isn’t too far away. I would love to come to another party to help make presents. If I know soon enough I will even take a day off if it is Mon-Fri. It is worth anything to be able to help. Thank you to all of you who were able to be there to make Foxie’s birthday so wonderful for her and the rest of the Cle Elum 7.
Hi Jeani ~ that’s great! Thanks so much 🙂 We have no idea “what’s next” and certainly I hope everyone feels open to throwing things out there that they’d like to do. The main thing is to ensure the staff have authorized whatever it is that we’re all thinking about doing. For anything that Audrey and I “cook up” we will be sure to let you know! Have a wonderful day Jeani!
The party was great, Patty’s ranch gorgeous and it was amazing how much we all did while having so much fun in a relatively short time. Hopefully we can do regular events and keep the chimps guessing about what excitement might be coming next!! It is so inspiring to help enrich the rest of their lives. Their resilience, especially in light of all they’ve been through is inspiring for all of us. Thanks to everyone!!!!!!!!!!
heya Foxie, lookin’ good! I love your long, thin fingers & thumbs.. you’re so beautiful!
thanks Shelly for taking the time out to write about the haps at the party.. sure wish I could’ve went..
many cheers to everyone who attended and to all those that were able to contribute & send gifts!
I just laughed so hard I have to re apply my mascara….they are so funny XOXOXO