Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for December 2014

Welcoming in the New Year

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We are all continuously so amazed by how generous our supporters are—truly, you all keep this sanctuary running! We are able to give Jamie, Foxie, Burrito, Missy, Annie, Negra, and Jody a cozy warm home, good healthy food, long-lasting friendships with caregivers, and an endless supply of trolls, boots, and other enrichment directly because of YOU.

This year, our family of staff and supporters has grown stronger and our hearts have only gotten bigger from how grateful we are to see these seven special beings live their lives without the fear of being in confined biomedical lab cages—not knowing what would happen next.

Now, you can see in their eyes they trust us. They trust us. It truly amazes me after all they’ve been through, that they not only forgive humans, but learn to build friendships with confidence, trust us with their most prized possessions, and even help us out when needed. It’s because of your support that we can maintain these important relationships with these chimpanzees and provide them with hope, love, home, and sanctuary.

Our goal for year-end giving of individual donations was fairly optimistic, but we’re getting closer and closer every minute that we creep toward welcoming 2015. As I write this, we are just $1,512 short of our goal for year-end giving! In just a few short hours, you can help us make it to our goal for this year (or surpass it!)

Dora and friends got dressed up for the New Year’s Eve bash:
Dora the Explorer on NYE

Everyone enjoyed a sparkling apple cider forage, especially Jamie:
jamie drink cider

jamie drink cider

jamie drink cider

jamie drink cider

Missy had her own technique:
missy drink cider

Everyone else was busy collecting the nuts and coconut flakes we scattered around like confetti:

Foxie:
foxie

Annie:
annie

Jody:
jody forage

Negra:
negra forage

negra forage

Cheers to you and yours, and Happy New Year from all of us at
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest!

Happy Birthday, Margaret Parkinson!

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This day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees was also sponsored by Karen Creason in honor of her wife, Margaret Parkinson, on her birthday! Karen shared this lovely message:

“For our beloved friends, The Cle Elum Seven, in recognition of my sweet wife’s birthday. May our friends have another year of peace, love, joy, food and giggles.”

Karen and Margaret have been supporters of the sanctuary from the very beginning and we couldn’t possibly love them more. They are both very special souls who advocate tirelessly for animals everywhere. Margaret is also an amazing artist who donates her beautiful work to benefit animal organizations everywhere. You may recognize Margaret’s recent painting of Burrito, which she donated to our Hoot! gala and auction last spring:

burrito play

Karen, thank you so much for giving the chimpanzees a special day in honor of your (and our!) beloved Margaret. And Margaret, we hope your day is filled with food squeaks and lots of birthday cake, pant hoots with loved ones and nesting in comfort after all the celebrating! We love you both so much! Thank you for all the beauty, light and love you bring to life for so many beings. Happy Birthday!!

Negra:

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Happy Anniversary, Sharon and Larry Clinton!

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Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Sharon and Larry Clinton in honor of their anniversary! They shared the following message:

“This day is special to us because it’s our anniversary. We have been a family for 41 years and want to share with the Cle Elum Seven, our chimp family, in celebration.”

Sharon and Larry do so much to help the chimpanzees (and humans!) in a variety of ways and we are so touched that they thought to include the chimps in their celebration. Happy Anniversary, from all of the primates at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, you two!

Sharon and Larry’s pal, Jody:

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Monthly favorites

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Earlier this year, we phased out the individual Facebook pages for each chimp in favor of consolidating posts to our main CSNW Facebook page, with the promise that we would post our favorite photos of each chimp every month. Sometimes they are photos we haven’t posted to the blog before, and sometimes they are repeats, but ones that are definitely worth repeating! This month I selected some that haven’t been posted on the blog or Facebook before. I also wanted to thank everyone for their support during this busy month, and all year long!

You don’t have to be on Facebook to see our posts there — here’s the one from today:

Post by Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.

Thank you, Patricia Schubert!

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Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Patricia Schubert! Patricia, thank you so much for your kindness and generosity toward the chimpanzees and for honoring them with a special day! We have the most amazing supporters and it’s truly a joy and a gift to be surrounded by such compassion every day.

Part of sanctuary for Negra is mini-pumpkins:

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Thanks to everyone who has sponsored days in the last couple of months, getting us to our goal of 50 new sponsored days by the end of 2014! There’s still two more days to surpass our goal!

Today’s Highlights

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Today is sunny but very cold in Cle Elum – tonight’s low is predicted to be 0 degrees Fahrenheit – and the chimpanzees are having a quiet afternoon in the warm playroom. Here are our favorite photos from the day; let us know which is your favorite!

Negra in her nest:

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Missy checking out the blanket fort built by caregiver Keri:

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Foxie carrying the remnants of a wooden spoon that she broke earlier in the day:

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Jody with green lips after munching on an alfalfa cube:

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Burrito searching the playroom for leftover food after lunch:

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Annie grooming her arm and basking in the sun:

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Jamie looking peaceful:

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Happy Birthday, Tracy Headley!

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Tracy Headley sponsored today with this message, “I celebrate my friends at CSNW on my 50th birthday.”

Tracy is an impressive supporter of the sanctuary. You may recognize her name because she has sponsored several days, has had days sponsored in her honor, is a Chimpanzee Pal to more than one of the chimpanzees, and donates literally whenever we have any kind of donation opportunity, including sponsoring the HOOT! gala.

Tracy is clearly an incredibly giving person and a friend to all of the primates at the sanctuary. I was so excited when she and her husband Bruce signed up for a Summer Visitor day this past summer and got to see Foxie’s birthday party – – because there’s not much that tops seeing a party thrown for the chimpanzees.

Here’s a photo of Foxie from that day as she scrapes every bit of watermelon out of its skin:

Foxie's face in watermelon

and here’s a bonus photo of Burrito, who’s always up for a party:

Burrito eating apples

Thank you for all of your generous support, Tracy, including sponsoring today.

Foxie, Burrito, and crew wish you the best of all birthdays today and we hope you are throwing yourself a big party!

I know Tracy would want everyone to know that we need only five more sponsored days to reach our goal of 50 new sponsored days before the end of the year. Help us get there by picking a day to sponsor for yourself or a loved one.