I found some photos on the computer taken by Elizabeth and Lisa a few days ago. Just looking at these pictures makes me feel so relaxed!
Archives for April 2014
Happy Birthday, Lisa!
Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Richard Stuverud in honor of his wife, Lisa’s, birthday! Richard shared this beautiful message:
“I want you to know that the ongoing life adventures of “the seven” has touched my wife deeply and over the years she has become attached to and moved by these beautiful chimpanzees. The labor of love that is so much a part of your lives has, in its own way, become a part of hers. Her life has truly been enriched by observing the incredible effort, dedication and love shown by all of you in support of CSNW…therefore I want to honor her birthday by sponsoring a day.”
Your Pal, Jamie:
Richard and Lisa, we are so touched by your lovely words and full of gratitude for all you do to make the chimpanzees’ lives better. Lisa, all of us here at CSNW hope your day is as wonderful as the many days of celebration and love you’ve provided for the chimpanzees (and full of lots of pant hoots and food squeaks!). Happy Birthday!!
Playing with Dolls
Foxie can always find a willing play partner in her troll dolls.
Still life with Missy
If you are a regular follower of the blog you probably realize it’s a rare moment that we catch Missy sitting still. Just yesterday I saw her on Young’s Hill trying to climb the very uncooperative and very bendy bamboo. She finally gave up, leapt into the air and spun 360 degrees before landing, and then ran back down the hill at full speed.
Today all the chimpanzees have been enjoying a leisurely day of lounging, grooming, and napping. And even the ever-moving Missy decided to take a few minutes to relax. But Missy still throws a little of her own flare into relaxing. While she is having a Missy-style quiet moment in these photos, (and what I unfortunately couldn’t capture with the camera) she is simultaneously tapping her best pal, Annie, on the head as Annie bites Missy’s toes.
April Fool’s Day at the chimp house
We are always trying to come up with fun and interesting ideas to enrich the chimpanzees at CSNW. Since today is April Fool’s Day, I was coming up with ways to mix things up for the chimps. We tried to serve lunch at breakfast, which didn’t seem to go over as well as I had thought—the chimps were expecting fruit smoothie! So we made up for that faux pas by doing a smoothie forage.
While Elizabeth and I were setting up the smoothie cups, we were trying to come up with “jokes” to play with the enrichment. We decided to put all their toys for the day inside an old trash can, and “leave behind” some things we normally don’t let the chimps have. We left a disinfectant container (with tea instead of disinfectant of course) and a gum container with just a couple pieces of gum in it, plus some kitchen utensils and other chimp-safe things we could find. This part of the day’s enrichment went much better than the first April Fool’s joke we played on the chimps! They loved it.
Jamie was the first to open the trash can of enrichment, and Annie was very interested, too.
Foxie:
Missy:
Jody found the “disinfectant” tea first:
And Jamie also took an interest: