This is Jamie.
As many may know, Jamie tends to be a more serious chimp and is incredibly intelligent. You can always see the wheels turning in her head. Jamie knows what she likes and isn’t afraid to ask for or demand what she needs. Often when she is gesturing for one of us to put boots on she has a specific boot in mind and we won’t go on a walk until she has the one she wants. She is never scared to ask for what she needs! It might be the trait I admire about her the most. Jamie is a busy body, she will build an amazing nest to settle in for a nice nap and the next moment she is gone grabbing an enrichment item to try to break the howdy door open to see her neighbors. As a disclaimer, it is usually a wooden toy or object that will not break the lock. But, you can’t blame her for having a hard time relaxing when there are so many people to manage. As I have mentioned before, Jamie has a good sense of humor too. When she wants to, she can get downright silly.
In the mornings while we are cleaning the playroom Jamie will often find the caregiver of her choice, have them put on the boot of her choice (Diana’s Xtratuf boots with the blue), walk or run around the Hill, and then settle into a nest or observe us cleaning from the window in the green house. Yesterday, Jamie decided that I should not clean, but instead play… I had given Jamie her new boot catalog which she seemed very pleased about. Jamie took her book and began to build a nest and skimming through the book. At some point, we were playing a game where she would put her hand in the foot box and I would knock on the box. Then Jamie put her head in the box! I would gently knock the box, she did this a few times. Afterward, we played a bit of chase and then she burst into a sprint with her new book in her mouth. I apologized to Chad and took off running to catch up with Jamie on the Hill.
Bonus!
Last Wednesday as we were closing up the chimp house for the night. I found Jody working on some night time enrichment. I have never seen Jody go to such great lengths for night time enrichment before!
