Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

Two Small Words

by

I’ve been writing these two small words over and over lately: Thank you.

Donors to the sanctuary made our year-end fundraising soar to new and unexpected heights, and we have been quite busy sending out thank you letters and donation receipts.

I love to write those words, and I love thinking about each person as they made their donation. Some donors I know very well, and I can picture them as I write. Others are new and mysterious, and I wonder how they came to know about the chimpanzee sanctuary in Cle Elum.

Sometimes (often) those two words don’t feel nearly big enough to contain all of the gratefulness that I’m feeling. I hope the actual depth of my appreciation is somehow transferred into the ink as I write.

It really is incredible that people support the sanctuary and take the time and effort to back up that support with often hard-earned money. Knowing that we have this shared concern and mission is powerful.

I feel lucky to have a job where I not only get to be around amazing and unique non-humans, but I also have the opportunity to see the generosity and hope that our own species is capable of demonstrating.

So, reflecting on all of this today, I started to think about how the chimpanzees show gratitude. Thankfulness is a pretty complicated emotion that is probably an amalgam of different feelings, and maybe something that carries a bit of cultural individuality.

We don’t claim to be able to be inside the heads of the chimpanzees, even those we know very well, so I can’t say for sure that they experience thankfulness like I do.

That’s the conundrum about perception, though – I only know what I experience. I can guess that other people/beings experience the same or similar feelings as I do based on imagining how I would feel in a given situation and observing their outward behaviors, but it’s really just a guess.

Given my limitations of knowing much of anything about what’s outside of myself, I do think that the chimpanzees show and maybe feel something akin to gratitude.

When we serve food, we bring it through the chimp area first, as illustrated in the popular “pasta cam” that J.B. created on Burrito’s birthday. The excitement that the chimpanzees exhibit and the satisfying groans they make when we provide them with food is, I think, at least tinged with gratefulness.

Among themselves, when one of the chimpanzees reaches out for reassurance (like Negra here):

and then receives the reassurance they are seeking (from Jamie in this case):

I imagine there’s some thankfulness that’s part of what the reassurance-seeker experiences.

There was a more dramatic experience last fall when we had to suture Jody’s eyelid that I couldn’t help but believe that Jody was thankful for the humans, even though we had to do something that she otherwise would not have appreciated.

And then there are just the little everyday moments when the chimpanzees do a little something that makes me wonder if they are feeling grateful, like when old friends visit and walk with Jamie or today when I caught Missy’s gaze as she turned from the window she was looking out, and she proceeded to walk over and let me groom her back through the fencing.

I can’t say for sure if Missy was thankful that I was there to share the moment with her, but I can say definitively that I felt a whole lot of gratitude.

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  2. I would like to thank You for sending me an amazing envelope full of thanks and pictures, and a touching comment, after my recent Sponsor a Day in memory of my brother. I was not expecting anything in return, and I was touched beyond words.
    Ps, I found out about your sanctuary quite randomly on Facebook, after sponsoring a couple chimpanzees at the sanctuary in Georgia, at Project Chimps.
    Thanks again for all you do. You all make my day.

    • I’m so glad you appreciated the thanks. It’s great to know how you found out about us. It really is touching that you have chosen to honor Robin with your support.

  4. As I read your note at the bottom of the letter I most certainly felt your gratitude and was touched by the personal words knowing how many you’d been writing. I have the feeling I speak for many when I say the pleasure is ours too, knowing our friends and more to come will be able to experiece love and peace.

  5. Such a lovely post Diana. Sweet perspective/insight of the chimps love for each other and you. And I am certain Missy was very thankful you were there for a grooming session, companionship, and a sense of belonging. (Not anthropomorphising, I believe the science will soon prove this to be true.) : )

    It must be all consuming to care for seven chimpanzees, not mention the new addition of four new cows. And yet I have never received a single correspondence when you haven’t added a personal note, comment, or a simple personal touch to every Thank You and fundraising letter I receive from you. Not to mention the inclusion of a photo of one of the chimps — I love that you do this. I have never experienced another organization that takes the extra time and special care to add such considerations and personal touches for their supporters and friends. Makes me smile every single time I open your envelopes and your kindness fills my heart with gratitude.

    One of your past posts by Katelyn was titled “There is Magic Here”. There is indeed!

    • Thank you, Kathleen! Magic indeed – created by all of you and the love that surrounds the chimpanzees. We’re so glad you are a part of it.

  6. Such a lovely post, and I am so very grateful for the beautiful photos and writing on the daily posts, and so thankful that youi can share the lives of these amazing beings with us. I am grateful to them for being their own beautiful selves, and there must be some sense of…well we don’t know exactly but I am sure it is GOOD…within each of them, for the pleasure of the food, the books, blankets, toys, treats, companionship, space, sunlight and wondrous snowflakes. Ah to see the world through their eyes, just so we could know… but you do bring us close!!!! I try hard not to interpret through human processing, but then…that’s mostly all we’ve got. I say “mostly” because, truly, with your wonderful descriptions of what they do, I think we can sometimes soak that in without putting human conditions on it…I try. I try.

    In any case, they are beautiful, and so are you! In gratitude…!

  7. A beautiful post from a beautiful person. Don and I want to thank you, JB, the staff,the volunteers and the other donors for honoring the Cle Elum 7 . Because of this group effort, each day they have the best lives any capitive chimps could have. They are treated with dignity, dedication and love and yes, they are grateful. For the first time in their lives, there is trust that humans will not hurt them but instead, lavish attention on them and provide for their needs. Thank you for working so hard for the 7 and for those who will join them- very lucky chimps indeed. We are so happy we found you 10 plus years ago and could become a part of the CSNW family. It has been a truly amazing and gratifying experience.

  8. Wonderful sweet post, as always. Your letter writing reminds that I keep forgetting to ask that you not to waste stamps on cards to me. I love getting them but I’m already a pack rat and don’t need any encouragement 🙂 So if it helps, send your thanks via the stars. That’s enough for me. xo

    • Thank you, Francoise! The stars will pass along our thanks! I have emailed you a couple of times with a question about your last donation – did you get those emails? I fear they have been marked as spam.

  9. I am forever grateful for the life and mission of the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, and those who live
    and work there. The refuge is a beacon of love and sanity in an anthroposphere sorely lacking in those
    qualities.