Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

Archives for December 2017

New Year's Eve

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New Year’s Eve is so exciting! The anticipation for the new year builds while everyone spends time with loved ones. Here at the Sanctuary we are getting ready for our New Year celebration tomorrow! As we reflect on the past and look forward to the future we thank everyone for helping the chimps to an ever expanding life! Here are some photos of how the day was spent! Though most of Jamie and I’s day was wearing boots and chasing from the playroom to the Hill!

Jamie making a nest with a boot in her pelvic pocket:

Jamie zipping up her boots:

Negra making her nest:

Sweet Annie:

 

In memory of Mikey

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We are full of immense gratitude for the countless ways in which you all have contributed to the lives of the chimpanzees throughout 2017. As we ready to release one year and move forward into the flow of the next, how lovely and apropos is this, our last day of sanctuary sponsorship for the year, from Debi Domantay:

“All my life I’ve felt a deep passion for Nature & ALL animals with a particular interest in Chimpanzees, Gorillas & Orangutans… If I could relive my life, I’d certainly become a Primatologist. This donation is in memory of “Mikey” & ALL animals in need of being rescued from a life without dignity & respect.”

Debi, thank you so much for your heartfelt message and New Year’s Eve gift for the chimps in memory of Mikey. As we move into 2018 and our plans to begin expansion in order to not only improve the lives of the chimps, but to be able to offer others a sanctuary home, your thoughts couldn’t be more well-timed. A perfect gift in celebration of the New Year!

To those who celebrate at this time, Happy New Year’s Eve! And to all, may your days, months and years ahead each be better and more abundant in all the good ways than the last, just as you’ve made possible for the chimpanzees.

Negra:

Jody:

Jamie:

Foxie:

Burrito:

Annie:

Missy:

All is calm, and today is sponsored by Kery & Terran

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Sanctuary friends Kery and Terran sponsored today, New Year’s Eve Day, with this lovely message:

“For the Chimps, the staff and the volunteers of CSNW. All is calm, all is bright. Wishing you much love and joy during this holiday season! Love & Gratitude, Kery & Terran”

We’re wishing you the same!

Here are some calm and bright moments with the chimpanzees from this year:

 

Jamie in her tunnel hideout:

Jamie sitting in tunnel

 

Negra sleeping while wrapped in a red blanket:

negra sleeping

 

Burrito and Missy grooming:

burrito and missy grooming

 

The Iconic Negra

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This morning I took this photo of Negra:

It’s not the greatest quality because i took it with my somewhat outdated phone.

 

It got me thinking about this photo that I took last week while Negra sat in the same spot eating a pomegranate:

 

For fun, I did a search for photos labeled with the words “Negra” and “arms crossed” and I found some of my favorite photos of this iconic queen of the sanctuary. Enjoy!

Negra sit on platform arms crossed

 

Negra heavy lip with eyes closed

 

I hope that you are having a Negra kind of a day – resting comfortably and just being yourself. And I hope you’ll take a moment to support Negra and her friends before midnight tomorrow by making a donation towards our $20,000 year-end goal. We’re about 40% of the way there so far!

 

 

More love from Trish!

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In her desire to do something special for the chimpanzees, Trish Loesch recently sponsored not one, but two days of sanctuary, with today being the second!

In the immediate sense, we’ve been watching the chimps enjoy so many joy-filled days this holiday season. Warm, yummy foods, heaps of the softest of blankets, new enrichment to spark their curious and intelligent minds, beloved favorites like boots and dolls, and all the comforts and joys we as humans enjoy as well.

And in the long-term, we’ve been watching the chimps step more fully each day into the freedom to make their own choices, the dignity that comes with being respected and appreciated just for who you are, the courage to explore and take new risks, and the comfort of being at peace in one’s own skin and own home. Those are no small gifts.

Trish, thank you for immensely for contributing to the ever-expanding ripple of love, compassion and generosity surrounding the chimps that not only makes their lives in sanctuary possible, but makes more than they may have ever dreamt, possible.

Jamie:

Foxie

Burrito:

Negra:

Annie:

Missy:

Missy sleeping in a big nest

Jody:

 

Foxie's favorite things

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Foxie’s love of her dolls is an endless source of heart-melting joy, fascination and mystery to us. If you’ve been following the chimpanzees for awhile you are probably aware that Foxie’s love of her dolls (that we’re aware of) began shortly after the chimps’ arrival to the sanctuary in 2008 with her subsequent discovery of “Trixie” the troll doll. For several years, Foxie lived and breathed troll dolls and showed little to no interest in other dolls or forms of enrichment.

Then Dora the Explorer appeared on the scene and for reasons known only to Foxie, she was utterly smitten. Dora quickly raised through the ranks to join the status of the trolls. While we’ll never know what mysterious criteria Dora met, we were happy to see Foxie branching out with her interests. She became particularly enamored with France Dora. She definitely has a certain “je ne sais quoi” and to this day I think she remains Foxie’s most treasured of all the Dora dolls.

Fast forward a few years and Foxie branched out even further to include Dora’s friends:

It’s hard to resist wanting to interpret Foxie’s behavior with her dolls and in our curiosity to make guesses as to Foxie’s doll criteria, we thought maybe it was the combination of big hair and big eyes. Most recently she’s incorporated the new Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Big hair: check! Big eyes: check!

And then…Foxie threw us a curve ball by falling in love with the new old-style Strawberry Shortcakes. Big hair: meh, not so much. Big eyes: no, beady!

When Foxie adds another doll to her collection that doesn’t mean her trolls and Dora dolls lose their status. Her comfort level just seems to expand allowing her natural curious nature to investigate new things. And it seems her heart feels increasingly safer to let new experiences in. And we certainly know that our fellow animals experience the same emotions we humans do. That said, it’s tempting to read too much into Foxie’s behavior and it’s emotionally appealing and comforting for us to think her love for her dolls is all about a chance to be the mother she was never allowed to be to her four children she gave birth to in the labs who were stolen from her. After such incomprehensible trauma, it’s clear the dolls bring Foxie enormous comfort and joy and I think it’s safe to say she does engage in mothering behavior with them, but at the same time she often beats them up. And I mean beats.them.up!

And so as curious as we are and as well as we know Foxie, just as with any other person, we can never know for sure what she is thinking. Nor would we be so species-centric if you will, to assume. And the thing is, it doesn’t matter. Foxie is Foxie and her happiness doesn’t need definition. Nor does our love for her. Her happiness and well-being, that’s the only thing that’s our business.

It’s been a few weeks since Foxie has received a new Dora and when we surprised her with one a supporter had sent, it was evident that Dora’s still got it. Whatever “it” may be.