Jamie’s a clever woman. If you’ve been following us for any length of time at all, this isn’t news. We have the great privilege and honor of getting to hang out with her every day and yet, she is always a delight and a surprise.
Sometimes it’s easy to make the ridiculous human mistake of thinking that Jamie is acting in a random manner without intent and purpose. When that happens, it’s usually because we just can’t figure out what she is trying to tell us, it’s not immediately apparent to us. But I guarantee you she always has something in mind.
This afternoon she headed out on a walk around Young’s Hill, her cohorts happily falling into line behind her for an after lunch walk around the hill in the sunshine and fresh air. But Jamie wasn’t just out for a stroll in the sunshine and fresh air. She’d been thinking and had a plan in mind. Once she completed walking the perimeter of the chimps’ outdoor habitat, she made a beeline for the bamboo in the center of the hill and immediately began collecting sticks of a precise kind and size. Jamie had been thinking about the fact that a volunteer caregiver had spilled peanut butter on her scrub top earlier in the day (which Jamie had politely pointed out) and if she had a perfect size tool she could get the peanut butter off the human under the guise of asking to groom her. The peanut butter had been washed off, but no mind, if you’re Jamie you never know when you might need a good bunch of sticks. You may feel like grooming the humans, attempting to poke an unsuspecting human, collecting a piece of gum just out of reach outside the caging, or maybe just taking a good selfie.
As I type this I can see Jamie in the camera, watching me from atop her barrel. She is kicking the wall to get my attention and saying, “Just hurry up and post my blog because I have a task for you!” It’s been merely a couple moments and I’ve been speaking to her the entire time, but Jamie gave up on the dawdling humans and took matters into her own hands. The task she had in mind was that a piece of gum had fallen into the crevice of the drain cover outside the door. Chad walked in to check on her and discovered a tool in the drain cover and now we can see Jamie in the camera chewing gum.
The boss lady calls again! So here you go, folks. And yes, she took this selfie with her stick :):
You would think you would all be better trained by now 😉 Thank goodness Jaime is still willing to work with you all! xo
Nicole, too funny!
Jamie is amazing!
Jaime is so clever& creative& has such intentional living skills!!!Why am I surprised that she remembered the gum falling& figured a way to collect it& enjoy it& used her tools for a selfie!!!Never underestimate The Boss Lady’s brilliance!Love you Jaime!
She is so amazing!!!
Well, so much for masks and safety! Jeez, Boss, if you’d just asked them, I’m sure they would have given you some gum!
This almost tops the “fetch my favorite magazine out of the trash” story! Except that you told me a long time ago she can hold a grudge, and that usually goes along with stubbor-er, *determination *. 😛
Congrats on finding another way to make Jamie smile for the camera!
Btw, what do the Californians think of gum?
Love the blog today! Jamie is Amazing and Beautiful! Thank You!
Oh what a story! Seems as if I should say this is mind blowing, but then I realize we are discussing Jamie so I gotta say “All in a days work”. Jamie must have been so disappointed she missed out on grooming off that little peanut butter spot from the volunteers shirt. I’m happy she scored the chewing gum. Gadzooks I just love her.
As a retired English teacher, I enjoy your writing so much. Not only is it entertaining, but it is also well-written!!
Although there are quite a few, this is one of the best Boss Lady stories of all time…One I’ll likely never forget…I’m practically dumbfounded…
Anyway Katelyn,I wouldn’t have been half surprised if you told us you’d next spotted Jamie feverishly rubbing her bamboo sticks together in hopes of starting a little bonfire out on the Hill in anticipation of more cold weather…What a VERY clever girl… : )
I love her expression in the selfie…She actually looks like she wants to bust out laughing with that adorable smirky little grin like she’s mighty proud of herself…haha…Thanks for the amazing story…I wonder what Jane Goodall would make of Jamie’s extraordinary intelligence…
What a great blog to wake up to. That is the funniest so far. Helps one get
through the day of constant rain that we have in Tn. for months now. But,
laughing and smiling all through a blog is the best medicine. Thanks so much.
Thank you, I love a good Jamie story, she just amazes me.
And her selfie pic is so cute, she has such a sparkle in her eyes, she looks so happy.
Extraordinarily wonderful… Jamie.. you add so much of many things to the lives of so many,.. as does the rest of the cast and crew! Thank you ALL!
Jamie rocks the selfie stick. What an absolutely gorgeous photo of her! But now I have to find the magazine in the trash post!! I thought there was a way to search the blog , but Ican’t find it. Anyone know when was that blog post?
New meaning to the term selfie stick! There’s a search box at the bottom of each web page that searches the whole website including blog posts. To save you time, here’s a link to that blog post: https://chimpsnw.org/2019/06/another-busy-day-for-the-humans-49332/