After lunch this afternoon, Debbie and I hung out for awhile in the greenhouse with the chimpanzees. Jamie seemed restless. She went into the building for a moment and returned to the greenhouse with a hand shovel and proceeded to dig. Annie, who is always a big fan of digging, couldn’t resist joining her.
Archives for April 2013
A Few of Negra’s Favorite Things
Two of Negra’s favorite things are looking out over the view of the valley and eating fresh, spring grass. It fills us with delight this spring to find Negra feeling more and more comfortable venturing outside onto Young’s Hill, often all on her own. Despite being the middle of spring, we have been surprised by snow showers the past couple of days here in Cle Elum. As a result Negra was very reluctant to get out of bed this morning and I can’t say that I blame her. At one point I caught her looking out her window at the heavy snow showers and pulling the blanket back over her head. It took JB reminding her that another favorite of hers, peanuts, were on the menu before she decided to join everyone for breakfast. Thankfully it didn’t take long for both the sun, and Negra, to come back out again.
Twin Doras
During Foxie’s decades in biomedical research she was used as a breeder. We know of five children that Foxie gave birth to, two of whom were twins. It’s heartbreaking that Foxie was not given the opportunity to raise any of her children. Since arriving at the sanctuary she seems to have found a special affinity for her beloved troll dolls and more recently, Dora dolls. When Foxie chooses to join us for a walk around Young’s Hill she can often be seen carrying one of her many dolls on her back just as chimpanzee mothers do with their children in the wild. It’s a bittersweet glimpse into how life should have been for her and each of the Cle Elum Seven. While we can never know for sure what Foxie is thinking about her “babies” it makes my heart happy to see she has found something to call her own.
Negra Love
A few minutes ago I watched Negra getting a drink of water. She was sitting on the step between rooms three and four and she had her right leg stretched out, with her toes pointed and just touching the floor. The thought went through my mind that I simply love everything she does. The fact that her toes were pointed was a good enough reason to love her in that moment. And then I wondered how many people were thinking about Negra at that very instant. Six years ago, before coming to the sanctuary, the answer probably would have been none. Today, though, Negra has a whole community of people who love her; and that makes me filled with happiness.
Love of Negra is evident in several of the Out of the Box auction items created by supporters this year. Below are three that I have to share, and they are all due to the artistic talents of Margaret H. Parkinson.
Queen Negra is a 20″ x 16″ oil on stretched canvas. It was inspired by a photo of Negra with a royal purple blanket covering her head. The artist, Margaret, is a long-time supporter of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest – she and her wife Karen were at the sanctuary for our open house before the chimpanzees arrived. She created this painting especially for the Out of the Box auction, and it will be available in our online auction – anyone can bid on it starting May 4th!
Here Comes the Sun Darling Negra by Tamela is an amazing necklace. Margaret gave Tamela permission to use an image of Margaret’s Negra in the Sun painting that she painted for our very first auction in 2009. Tamela handcrafted the pendant. The center of the image is made with a glow in the dark clay and becomes a glowing moon in the dark. The piece that holds the image was also handcrafted by Tamela and is 99.9% pure silver. The necklace strand is made of citrine teardrop beads.
Tamela wrote this about her inspiration to create the necklace:
Margaret’s painting was so beautiful I knew it needed to be wearable art so more people could enjoy it. The high quality translucent citrine teardrop beads were carefully selected because of their meaning and the way they reflect light. Citrines give the owner a feeling of warmth and comfort much like Negra might have in her big fluffy blanket nest. Citrine also raises one’s mood and encourages happiness and laughter. I wanted the necklace to represent the life the chimps now have at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, a life filled with hope, love, warmth, comfort, and happiness, combined with that wonderful feeling of the sun on your face found in the original photo and Margaret’s painting- Negra in the Sun.
I nearly cried when I read that from Tamela.
This next item is a bit of a surprise for Margaret. A few months ago I asked her permission to use one of her watercolor paintings for special magnum bottles of wine that we will have at Out of the Box.
Here is a sneak peak at one of the bottles, which were etched and hand painted, thanks to the help of chimp friend Lynne Anderson:
Inside the bottles is Ellensburg Vista Winery‘s latest release. I like reading tasting notes of wine – lots of “oaky finishes” and “fruit forward” type of language. I’ve tasted this new Rosé and would just like to simplify things and say that it is delicious. Here’s the proper description from the vigneron, Gary Cox: This Rosé is a 2008 Cox Canyon Vineyards Cabernet Franc with just a touch of Viognier to give the wine a Cote Rotié French Flair/Finish. Raspberry is prominent in the nose of this wine, as raspberries are planted in the rows of the wine grapes to allow cross pollination and a direct effect of pollen on the seed of the wine grape, which carries thru to the must as it ferments to wine. Seattle Dining Magazine named it one of the ten best wines at Taste Washington earlier this year.
There will only be twelve bottles available at the May 4th Seattle Out of the Box event! We’ll have a special table for the magnums during the silent auction. Don’t miss out! Get your tickets to the Seattle event now. It’s just three weeks away!
Missy and Jody
Missy and Annie have been playing on the hill a lot lately, but this morning Missy found a new partner to play with. She always looks so surprised and overjoyed to be playing with someone else.
The chimps had only eaten part of their breakfast at this point, and Jody was determined to make it back to the greenhouse to get her chow bags, so she continued to play with Missy as she walked backwards down the hill.
As they approached the greenhouse, Jody spun Missy around and then proceeded to push her backwards like a shopping cart through the door and into the greenhouse. Missy thought that was hilarious.