We received such a wonderful response to last month’s Chimps’ Choice item, Protein Powder, which we add to the chimpanzees’ breakfast smoothie. Thank you so much to all who participated! This month, we’ve taken inventory and are in need of chewable vitamins and acidophilus, which are both available on our Amazon Wishlist. We appreciate all brands, however, we would like to request that they be vegan (no gelatin) and definitely chewable! As a thank you, we will send the first 10 people to donate between today and July 15th a ChimpSanctuaryNW.org bumper sticker. What a great way to support the sanctuary and get the word out! So, ready… set… go! 🙂
Archives for June 2010
Today in memory of Frank and Olga Hansler
Frank and Olga’s daughter Gina Ash recently made a very generous donation to the chimps in her parents’ memory. On the anniversary of Frank and Olga’s wedding, I have to share their touching story with you.
When Olga died of cancer in August 2005, Gina was very worried about her dad. At 82, he had never done a load of laundry in his life. Though they were very social before Olga’s death (playing bingo or cards at the senior center most afternoons and evenings), Frank stayed home for the next six months. Gina tried her best to help her dad mourn and recover, and he slowly started going back to his favorite activities. He started making new friends and after a while started taking one particular new “lady friend” to bingo regularly. As Gina said, “He was like a high school kid; all of his phone calls resulted in laughing so hard it hurt!” On May 12, 2007 Frank was returning from his lady friend’s house and was killed in a head on car accident.
Gina wanted to do something meaningful with her share of her parents’ estate. Around the same time, she saw Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest on ABC World Nightly News, checked out our work and our website, and took it as a sign that the chimps could use Frank and Olga’s help. Frank and Olga were good people and proud parents – they didn’t have a lot of money but they shared what they could. Now, it’s Gina’s (and my!) turn to honor their givings. So, this day is for them!
Window installation day
Window installation day was last Friday, so the chimps had to be locked out of the playroom for the entire day. I did all I could to keep them busy so they wouldn’t get too bored or anxious during the construction, though they really didn’t seem to mind and were pretty interested to see what was happening. I put out tons of raisin boards, prepared by volunteers Jennifer & Larry the day before, which kept them busy for a while.
Burrito seemed pretty sure there was no better place to be that day than sitting in the window in the outdoor area looking into the playroom.
He even spied on the workers by looking at them in a mirror.
He doesn’t have a lot of guy friends, after all…
Missy checking out the construction: (Doesn’t she look young in this picture?!)
And the next day, the chimps finally got to take a look out their new clear picture window.
Negra’s Birthday Party
Yesterday was such a wonderful day! Thank you so much to everyone who made the day possible! CSNW has the best supporters and volunteers!
Negra moments
The Cle Elum Seven are fortunate to have several caregivers, including a few volunteers who have gone through a long training process and are able to dedicate days each month to their care.
I asked the caregivers for their favorite Negra moments or favorite aspects of her personality. I also took a few from caregiver Denice’s comment on this earlier post about Negra.
I think the responses show how much we respect Negra for the person she is, and how glad we are that she had this chance at the sanctuary to show us all her personality.
We love you, Negra! Happy Birthday.
Favorite things about Negra:
- The way she adjusts her head bobs according to what type of dance steps we’re doing
- The “arms crossed and resting on the belly” pose
- The result of her intensely focused night-bag consumption – a belly covered in sunflower seeds and peanut shells
- When Negra seems to be ignoring you and not wanting to interact, but you catch her watching you out of the corner of her eye
- How she tries to stay out of the way when Burrito is running around displaying
- When she claps to get our attention or to let us know she is ready for more food to be served
- How she loves a blanket over her when she is resting
- The way her lips and face look when she’s drinking from a straw
- When she demands her night bag
- How she sometimes waits until the last minute to come in for breakfast, so you show her the little bowl of peanuts and she throws the blanket she’s wearing off of her shoulders and quickly comes down from the loft
Favorite moments:
- Negra coming down the stairs and joining in a game of slappy hands with Missy and Annie. This was captured in one of our first videos that we posted to the blog.
- The day I saw her climb up to the top of the outdoor enclosure to get a head of lettuce on the roof. Dangling up there! We got a video of that too.
- Early on, when the chimps first went into the playroom and Negra would just spend hours sitting in the sun at the barn doors
- When I was still in training, probably about a year ago. It was the first time she asked me for a kiss, and she was very deliberate like “you, let me kiss your wrist NOW.”
- I was interacting in the front rooms, and Negra was taking a pretty deep nap. I started dancing for Jamie and saw out the corner of my eye Neg bobbing her head. It made me laugh a lot – she really does love our silly dancing.
- Recently, when Negra suddenly started really playing with us. First, she let me tickle/knuckle rub her back playfully, and then proceeded to play tug of war with me.
- The day I arrived in the morning after not having been there for a month. Negra was under her blanket on the catwalk above the barn doors. Â When she saw me, she swung down on the fire hose (!) and ran over to give me a big long Neggie kiss on the back of my hand. Â I cried!
- During my training, she had always given me the impression that she thought I was some kid who clearly did not know how things work around here– as someone who needed to be reminded of her queen status quite often! But one day she approached me and decided I was worthy of a kiss through the caging to the back of my hand and a little tickle to the wrist. I learned that day that there is nothing quite like special attention from Negra!
- Every time I see Neg in a giant nest of blankets and straw in the outdoor area, I remember watching her in the small stark room in the basement of Buckshire tearing bits of newspaper to try to make a nest. At the time, I imagined her with armfuls of blankets at the sanctuary. I didn’t know she would become the queen of blankets, with one wrapped around her almost all the time, but I did know she would make some pretty great nests for herself.
Happy Birthday, Negra!
You may have noticed in the video posted previously that we’ve been keeping a secret from you.
On Friday, we replaced three caged windows with clear chimp-proof glass. Thanks to a generous donation from LUSH for two of the windows:
And Anna Kircher and fellow blog readers for the third window (view of the garden!)
If you received the e-newsletter sent out earlier today, you saw photos of Negra’s view and her sitting in one of the windows upstairs.
Here’s a photo of Jody taking a peak out the blog reader’s window downstairs:
and Jamie cleaning the window (apparently we forgot to complete the installation with a wipe-down using a sock):
We’ll be installing four more new windows soon thanks to everyone who donated between March 17th and today for our 2nd Anniversary Fundraising.
We’ll share the final fundraising amount and who raised the most early this week. Thanks, everyone for helping us exceed our goal!!
happy anniversary and thank you
We really can’t thank you enough for following the lives of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees and helping to fill their new lives with love and happiness.
The last two years have been remarkable.
This video is for you: