Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for December 2008

Holiday celebration with the Cle Elum Seven

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Happy Holidays from the Cle Elum Seven. They thank you for all of the gifts, wishes, and support! It was a great day full of gifts, goodies and gratitude. Lots of photographic proof below:

Burrito with gift bag

Burrito using his foot to help open a gift box

Foxie, a blur with her new big pink-haired troll

and with her special Mrs. Claus troll

Jamie investigating a purse full of gifts

Jody deciding that the decorations are as much fun as the toys

plus you can wear them!

Missy surrounded by gifts

Negra in Christmas sun – it was sunny all day!

Annie with handfuls of Field Roast and mashed potatoes

Jody getting full on mashed potatoes, carrots and celery

Missy with a cup full of cranberry sauce and a piece of Field Roast

Negra, from behind, with Field Roast

Burrito loves mashed potatoes!

And watching their new TV!!! We showed them “all about chimpanzees” Burrito was mesmerized. He watched it about seven times.

Jody and Foxie were also really interested. Here’s Jody’s reaction

Happy Holidays to all from the CCCs!

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(Note: This a message and photos from the enrichment party a few weeks ago!)

It’s been so great this year for all of us to have been drawn together by such a wonderful group of chimp people!

So take a little time this season to indulge your inner chimp –

  • grunt happily for good fod
  • make a mess and enjoy every minute of it
  • hug and kiss god friends
  • spray water on your neigbors
  • adopt a troll (or a dozen)
  • unselfconsciously wear a tutu
  • run thru the house wreaking havoc all the while looking totally innocent
  • try a backflip (!?!) with total abandon out of sheer joy

And thank our ape brothers and sisters for their lessons about resilience and what’s really important in life!

To everyone out there have a –

Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukah
Great New Year
and a swift return of the light!!!

Best photo of 2008

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A photo of Foxie’s fingers is one of the Yakima Herald Republic’s best photos of 2008! Photographer Kris Holland and reporter Jean Guerrero came out to the sanctuary only a couple of weeks after the  Cle Elum Seven arrived in June. Jean wrote a really great article and Kris took some fantastic photos. Below is the photo of Foxie’s hand that made the year-end cut.

And this is my personal favorite photo of 2008 (Missy eating frozen watermelon), not coincidentally also by Kris Holland – he’s a really good photographer!

Front room playing

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We do a lot of cleaning at the sanctuary. We thoroughly clean the front rooms and playroom in the morning (unless one or more of the chimps decides not to follow the morning routine) and we spot clean throughout the day. When we clean the playroom, the chimps stay in the front rooms. When we’re doing our big morning clean, during and after their breakfast, we’re always conscious of trying to get done quickly so that the chimps can have the playroom back. What we’ve noticed is that at least some of the chimpanzees take this time to play in the front rooms. We’ve already shared a few videos of Foxie and Jamie playing in the front rooms while we are cleaning the playroom.  Somehow playroom cleaning time = Jamie and Foxie playtime (along with the occasional addition of Missy, Jody and Annie). It’s kind of a play routine they’ve established around our cleaning routine.

Below is another video of Foxie and Jamie. This short video is action-packed! It includes double troll doll action, a sheet, and a leap-over move never seen before. The noise you hear in the background is J.B. squeegeeing the floor of the playroom.

play video coming soon…

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Sorry we haven’t posted in a little while! Things are hectic, in a good holiday kind of way. We’ve been working on getting all of your donation thank-you cards, new chimp pal packages and merchandise orders out in time for your holiday celebrations. Having this kind of work is so fun and gratifying. I can’t believe everyone’s generosity, and it’s so neat to see people come together in support of the Cle Elum Seven!

I do have a video to share with you all. I will upload it by tomorrow at noon – how’s that for giving myself a deadline 🙂 — it’s a really sweet video.

More soon!

Another snow video

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Here’s another video for you to enjoy. I think you can see everyone, at least for a second. Missy is jumping up and down on a blanket. Foxie (and her troll!) are up on the platfom eating snow. Negra spent the most time outside out of all of them!

PS. It’s not too late to make a gift donation to the chimps! If we get your donation by Monday, we’ll be sure to get a card out to your gift recipient before the 25th!