Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for August 2011

Relaxation

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I take a yoga class once a week and am often inspired by the chimps here at CSNW. Their lives are nowhere near the freedom of Africa, but they have mastered the art of being able to truly relax in their sanctuary. Negra, Annie, and Jody have all been spotted doing “yoga poses” while relaxing (see this post of Jody doing some of my personal favorite poses), but true relaxation involves much more than a stretch or a twist. Today, I went out to the outdoor area and spotted Negra kicking back on the deck. Her ability to let go with her expression is priceless! That is true relaxation.

Art

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As you may know, Jamie is an artist, though her medium of choice these days is usually pens and crayons, rather than paint. Perhaps she is more of a writer than a painter?

One of my favorite pieces from Jamie is the mask in this post. I found it while cleaning the playroom and was immediately amazed at how artistic and creative it was, so we’ve decided to frame it and put it in this year’s auction! I can’t wait to see how well it does!

Missy Games

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Thanks to Candy, Dawn, Alison, Audrey, Marcia, Judi, Amy, Margaret & Karen, Madelaine, Jeani, Stephanie P., Katelyn, Jody, Karen, Kathy H., Kathy B., Fran and Tanis (did I miss anyone??) for supporting Missy Games! Jackie and I had a lot of fun running through the obstacle course on Young’s Hill yesterday. Debbie was taking photos and decided to perform one of the feats of agility too.

The chimpanzees are going to have so much to do on the hill!

We didn’t quite raise the $1,000, but I’m going to “run” around the habitat this morning anyway. I’ll report back tomorrow. In the meantime, watch this photo montage of the Missy Games from yesterday.

Trouble viewing the video? Go here.

diana jackie leap youngs hill structure

Birthday Coconuts

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Missy’s birthday party was today. First, in the playroom, Jackie and I put almost entirely SOCKS out for the enrichment (we also included some boots and trolls, which are essential for enriching Jamie and Foxie). After we cleaned the outdoor area, we set up a huge forage of watermelon, lychees, bananas, bell peppers, green beans, and of course everyone’s favorite—coconuts! We also put out amazing gift bags put together by Robbi and Dick with all sorts of new enrichment. As we were setting up the forage, the chimps watched from the windows and were food grunting and squeaking.

Jackie took dozens of pictures of the chimps foraging through Missy’s birthday party, but sadly, the camera “decided” to re-format the card! So we lost all the pictures. Luckily when we realized this, the chimps had brought their coconuts into the playroom, and I was able to get a few photos of that.

Here’s Missy opening her coconut (notice she’s holding it steady with her foot!)

Foxie:

Burrito:

Burrito had an interesting method of trying to open his coconut. First, he was dragging it across the ground, and started rolling it back and forth. When that didn’t work he tried tossing it around and around:

He still hasn’t gotten it open but he is keeping it close to him. Hopefully he’ll get it open at some point!

I didn’t get a picture of Jody with a coconut, but here she is enjoying some leeks from our garden at the end of the party forage.

Happy Birthday, Missy!

Jackie and Diana are going to be goofy in Missy’s honor in about 10 minutes, and I’m sure it will be quite the sight to see. I’ll be photographing the event, and hopefully we’ll get some good shots posted tomorrow. Thank you to everyone that has pledged or donated to today’s Missy Games!

Obstacle course, here we come!

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We now have $600 pledged or donated, so Jackie and I will be running the obstacle course on Young’s Hill in celebration of Missy’s birthday!! Thank you all who gave towards this fun celebration!

If you’ve pledged but haven’t made your donation, you can do that by donating online or by mailing a check to: Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, PO Box 952, Cle Elum, WA 98922. Let me know ([email protected]) if you’re sending a check, and be sure to send me your email address if I don’t have it so we can send you some photos later today. We’ll put together a little video for all and post it tomorrow.

Missy is going to have a terrific birthday with her friends today and we are so happy to have everyone, even at a distance, be able to participate in the celebration.

missy hanging

missy jamie chase

missy jamie swing

playfaces

Another use for butcher paper

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Butcher paper is not just for arts and crafts. Jamie and Jody find it very nest-worthy. They both had nests that resembled paper mountains!

 

As I shifted the chimpanzees from the front rooms to the playroom, Jody grabbed this heaping pile of paper to use for later in the day.

Frozen treats for a hot day

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I know I’ve said it before- we have some pretty amazing volunteers here at CSNW. Volunteers Katelyn and Stephanie came up with the idea to freeze juice, blueberries, and raspberries in water bottles for an afternoon forage and today was the perfect day for it. It’s been several hours since we put them out, and the chimps are still looking for bottles. Thanks for keeping everyone enriched- and cool- ladies!