Tonight’s the night! It’s our annual gala and auction, HOOT! While staff, volunteers and many of our fabulous supporters are in Seattle gearing up for an evening of merriment and celebration, the chimpanzees, meanwhile, have been having a hootin’ good time in Cle Elum.
Our dear friend (and former staff), Keri, arrived with fresh rhubarb, chives and lilacs from her garden which added to the amazing Hoot! party extravaganza. Also on the chimps’ party menu were strawberries, purple cabbage, sweet potatoes, snap peas, leeks, watermelon, sparkling cider, and one pineapple top!
Jody, among the flowers:
Jody, Annie and Foxie enjoying the treats in Jamie’s kitchenette while she was busy gathering ALL the grab bags for herself. Maybe this is something akin to their version of the Dessert Dash we hold at the gala each year?:
Annie enjoying coconut:
The entire beautiful forage was scattered with lilac flowers and Foxie took it upon herself to “hoover”all of them up. Notice her trademark rubbing her toes together as she does this – the ultimate sign of a happy Foxie:
(Toes!)
Conveniently, the flowers happen to be stuck in coconut water, hence the tongue!
My favorite, with the petals on her lip 🙂
To each of you supporting the chimps in all the varied and generous ways you do, be it supporting HOOT!, attending HOOT!, volunteering your time with us and the chimps, following the chimps’ lives on the blog, sharing their stories with others, sending gifts and donations, well, the list of compassion and generosity is endless really, and from our hearts to yours, we’re so grateful to you! It gives us hope for humankind. It not only ensures the chimpanzees continue to thrive in their lives here, and thrive they do, but gives us all hope for the chimpanzees still awaiting their time in sanctuary, something all of you are helping to make possible through celebrating with us tonight, be it near or from afar.
We couldn’t have come this far for the chimps without you. And just imagine what we can accomplish together for so many others. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being part of our chimp family!
Kathleen says
It’s terrific that the chimps have as big of party as the humans on HOOT! night. So nice Kerri was there to celebrate with all of her beautiful garden goodies. Everyone must have been so happy to visit with their old friend. It must smell beautiful with all of those lilacs strewn everywhere. Jamie’s kitchenette is sweet! And I wonder who scored that pineapple top…..
Happy HOOT!
lisa says
honestly, i didn’t like that one very much. it looked to me like after a bit that annie was “bullying” negra. there was a point where annie was going to gauge negra’s eye out and after that it looked like negra was protecting her face and doing what she had to not to get hurt.
i have never-ever-never seen a video that y’all have shared with us that i have not loved. in fact, there are times that i watch them two, three, four times. i so love them !!!
this one, i watched twice to make sure that i was not making this up in my head. perhaps it was not bothering negra as much as i perceive it to be, but that is what i saw.
and that’s why i am not a primatologist. i am wondering if anybody else saw / sees what i did.
in any case, i thank you so much – as always – for one of the highlights of my day . . . watching the seven chimps in Washington do . . . all the different things that they do.
most sincerely,
lisa
Janet Geisel says
The hoot came out fantastic. Too many more.
I live watching the chimps in their yummy kitchenette.
Congrats for next
Kathleen says
I wish you had taken a photo of the damage, or should I say redecorating, that Jamie did to the playroom wall! How did she cause so much destruction that it took poor J.B. a few hours to repair? What tool did she use (her fist, ha ha ha!!), oh I am so curious. But I believe 100% that Jamie had a master plan to pull the group together and ease the tension. She is the Boss after all.
It is always fun to see the rare videos of my dear Negra having a play session! I don’t believe I’ve ever seen her being so goofy. And it was “weird” to see Negra’s reaction to Annie’s silly belly pushing. The way Negra stretched out her hind leg as she was scooted backwards, what was Annie up to?! Nice to see both girls laughing and having a good time. Thanks for capturing that one!!