Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Archives for May 2011

Jody’s Birthday Spa Day

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A lot of good people came together to pull off an awesome birthday/mother’s day bash for our Jody Chimpanzee! As always, two of the best chimp shoppers I know, Dick and Robbi Brown, brought gift bags full of new toys and decorations, long-time supporter Tamela sent us a donation to make sure the chimps had lots of yummy food, and volunteers Katelyn and Stephanie topped everything off with their awesome party ideas and additions!

Last week, I did some brainstorming with Katelyn and Stephanie, and we decided to make the day a “Spa Day”. Jody loves to lounge- we even recently caught her doing some serious lounging in the sandbox. She spends a lot of her time making very elaborate nests of 25 blankets or more and dives in them face first with a loud “ahh” sound (you may have heard us call this her dinosaur noise). Katelyn and Stephanie brought all the right ingredients for a spa day, including super-soft robes, magazines, slippers, eye pillows, plastic wine glasses, two big fluffy pillows and blankets. As if that isn’t enough, my new favorite florist, Terra Bella Flowers, an organic florist in Seattle, donated some food-grade quality roses for the chimps’ party. It was a girly, girly day! (sorry, you’re outnumbered, Mr. B!)

The following is a short video of some clips from the party, but see the photos below for the good stuff!

Annie going through a gift bag from Dick and Robbi Brown:

Burrito enjoying his mini bok choy

Foxie sending her mama love to her new troll baby:

Jody LOVED the banana blossoms! I had never heard of them before, but she was thrilled!

Terra Bella Flowers made Jody’s day with the roses they donated! She sat here with me the whole time I passed them out. I was even letting her pick out the ones she wanted out of the bunch. She is the birthday girl and all!

Negra enjoying her Terra Bella Rose:

Katelyn and Stephanie also bought a couple of pillows, which Jody spent some quality time with (once all the food and flowers were gone, of course!)

Thanks so much to volunteers Katelyn, Stephanie, and Grace; Dick and Robbi; Tamela; and Terra Bella Florist for making Jody’s day so special! Happy Mama’s Day to all the mama’s out there!

Young’s Hill getting closer one pole at a time

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Last week Keith, CSNW’s founder, and volunteer Laura helped J.B. set some poles for the fence around Young’s Hill. We are building a double fence system with a total of 220 poles, so J.B.’s going to need a lot of help in the coming weeks! If you are interested in doing some physical labor volunteering now or in the future, please contact J.B. – he’d love to hear from you.

Here’s a photo of the first set of poles that went up:

first double poles

Today Denice and some terrific volunteers from Seattle University’s Animal Advocates and the Seattle Animal Defense League are setting more poles. As a big bonus to all of us, they brought vegan donuts from Mighty O in Seattle!! Mighty O donated donuts for last year’s Out of the Box auction Dessert Dash and they were recently crowned the Food Network’s Donut Champions, so this is no small treat for us humans.

Anyway, enough about delicious vegan donuts. Back to the hill. Below is a photo of today’s volunteers setting posts.

volunteers setting posts

And here’s a photo of Negra and Annie. Negra was watching the poles going up. With the two greenhouse panels off, the chimps can see all the work being done on the hill.

Negra Annie looking to Young's Hill

It’s not all about poles, either. If you received our recent e-newsletter, you know that all of the topsoil left over from digging the trench for the primary fence was utilized to make some mounds on the hill. To put these mounds in perspective, here’s a photo of J.B. and Jackie on one set (imagine them as chimps!):

JB Jackie on mounds

Conflict and Reassurance

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Foxie and Burrito are very good friends. But even best friends fight from time to time.

This morning, as we were preparing to serve breakfast, Burrito launched into a display in the outdoor area. He had been on edge all morning and his display was probably a little more aggressive than usual. I couldn’t see what happened, but in an instant there was a lot of screaming and Burrito was tearing back into the playroom with Foxie hot on his heels. A few seconds later, the girls had him cornered, and Foxie tackled him from behind.

When chimps fight, everything happens so quickly that it’s difficult to make out what exactly happened. But after the fight had ended, Burrito was left with a cut above his eye, a cut on his back, and a huge bruise to his ego.

The rest of the day was uneventful but tense, as Burrito’s conflict with Foxie and the other girls still had not been resolved. Chimps seek out reassurance, often immediately after a fight, but Burrito and Foxie had not yet made up. So later in the afternoon, Burrito launched into a brief display and then dove into Foxie’s arms. They hugged momentarily and then spent 15 minutes quietly grooming one another. Burrito found the reassurance he was looking for.

 

Cinco de Mayo Party

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The ladies at the Tacoma chapter of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs sure know how to help us put on a party! As mentioned in the post earlier today, they sponsored today and sent us enrichment for a Cinco de Mayo party. And a party we had!

Along with some beach/summer-themed enrichment, the ladies sent us a Safeway gift card so that we could get some yummy produce for the party. So, on the Mexicali menu was tortillas, avocados, tomatoes, cabbage, and leeks (a chimp favorite!). In addition, we juiced some limes and added Key Lime Sparkling Water for our own version of virgin margaritas, poured into tiny plastic shot glasses, of course.

The margaritas smelled just like the real thing! In my opinion, they tasted WAY too tart, but the chimps loved them!! Here’s Jamie going for as many “shots” as possible:

And Annie, relaxing with the last drop of hers:

The tortillas were a big hit, too. I unfortunately didn’t get any photos of her, but bread-loving Negra was SO excited!

Jody:

Missy:

The ladies sent lots of festive beach bags and towels. We added a few beach appropriate things to the bags to fit the theme, such as magazines, combs (for when your hair gets messy after swimming), mirrors, hair clips, plastic shovels for the kids, an extra pair of sandals, etc…

Here’s Missy checking one out:

And how could this possibly be a real party if Foxie didn’t get some new trolls:


Thanks so much, ladies!! We’ve had a great day– and it’s not over! On tonight’s menu is beans and rice with corn on the cob! YUM!

Checking out what’s to come

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Yesterday JB took off two greenhouse panels so that the chimps can see what’s going on up on Young’s Hill. They’ve been watching the trucks bring gravel, the bobcat go up and down the driveway, and the lumber arriving, but up until yesterday they couldn’t see where it was all going. Annie and Jody looked particularly fascinated, but everyone came up to the deck to take a peek. Now the chimps can start dreaming of the day they’ll be out there, just like all of the humans are!

 

Jody’s Spa Day

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We all know Jody knows how to relax (see this the old Lessons from chimpanzees post with Jody nesting outside and this classic photo retrospective of Jody’s yoga poses).

Well, a couple of weeks ago Jody took a serious liking to the sandbox in the greenhouse. The greenhouse must have warmed up the sand nicely. While Connie and I cleaned the playroom, Jody truly appeared to be in her own private spa, oblivious to the world.

jody in sandbox

 

jody sandbox eyes closed

P.S. Don’t forget that we’ll be celebrating Jody’s birthday this Sunday – Mother’s Day!