A few happy moments from the week!
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
by Anna
A few happy moments from the week!
by Katelyn
Thanks so much to Maryanne and Nick Vizzare for sponsoring a day of sanctuary in memory of their long-time friend and neighbor, Steve Olson, and in honor of Steve’s wife, Sandi Matthews.
“Steve passed away in a tragic accident on June 8, 2021. When Maryanne saw a special pair of Steve’s boots, she told his family all about Jamie and her love of boots. Steve’s family wanted Jamie to have them…they thought Steve would really enjoy them having a second life.”
Many thanks again to Maryanne and Nick for sharing your love of both Steve and Jamie, as well as Nick’s sister and our long-time chimp friend, Lisa Stuverud, for helping to coordinate this special remembrance and ensuring Jamie received these amazing boots in time for her birthday on “Jamieween“.
And very special thanks to Sandi, and your and Steve’s family, for so graciously sharing something so special of Steve’s with Jamie. Our deepest condolences to you all. These amazing boots made an appearance in a recent blog post and believe us, Jamie *loves* them! They are one of her current “boots du jour”, the ones she often asks for when we are closing up the chimp house for the night so she can put them in her night nest. That’s high praise in Jamie lingo. It touches our hearts that you thought of her, especially in such a difficult time. We hope it brings your hearts a bit of the joy you all brought hers.
Jamie!
by Kelsi
Sometimes the best enrichment is the most simple enrichment. For example, all the chimps love boxes whether it’s to help build a nest, use as a tool to display with, or just play with. As you will see in the photos below and video above playing seemed to be the theme today!
As we continue on with our intro week we decided to try an all girl group again. Honey B, Mave, Rayne, and Lucky all volunteered to be a part of it today. We had tried this group before and their behaviors weren’t positive enough to open the door. But it has been a while and they all have done other introductions with each other so we thought we would give it another go! They did amazing, so good that they stayed with each other all afternoon. Rayne was just a jokester the whole time. At one point she was wrestling all three ladies! Honey B hasn’t had a person in her group to match her energy in a long time, Honey B and Rayne are a perfect match! Watching these four chimpanzees grow and develop friendships has been a true honor.
Now for box photos!
Gordo in a box:
Gordo having pomegranates in his box:
Lucky on a bench in a box:
A bonus photo of the handsome Cy:
And of course we could never forget that today is Honey Cow’s 14th birthday! She enjoyed the warm sunshine on a brisk day, fresh hay with her friends, and some tasty cob that Betsy swore was for her ;).
Getting to know Honey over the past few years has been a privilege. She is a fierce and loyal friend, self-assured, she can be sweet, and she is not afraid to tell you to go away! Cheers to the amazing Honey.
by Katelyn
Doesn’t it make your heart sing that our “official” birthday fairy godmother’s wishes are granted for the bovines, too!? Thank you, Paulette, for sponsoring a day of sanctuary in honor of Honey Cow and her 14th birthday!
As a Jersey cow who began her life on a dairy farm, Honey’s path took a very different direction than most of the nine million plus cows who produce milk for human consumption in the U.S. Several years ago, Honey and Betsy were both purchased by TV producers for a reality series called, “Utopia”, to be used for their milk on the show. Of course, this meant that both Honey and Betsy were pregnant (with Meredith and Nutmeg) at the time and Meredith was actually born during filming.
When the series ended, they didn’t want to send Honey and her family back to the dairy industry and thankfully, Farm Sanctuary stepped in and offered a home to them all. This tiny bovine family lived at Farm Sanctuary’s Northern California shelter until 2018 when we were able to welcome them home to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. We just celebrated their three year arrival anniversary on the 2nd!
We often laugh because it’s so common to see farm animals who live in sanctuary enjoying sweet interactions with their caregivers like playing, receiving pets and hugs, and even just lying around together. So naturally, we couldn’t wait to get our arms around this sweet family. Of course, while all those images are true, it’s also true that bovines, just like any other living animal, have their own unique personalities, likes and dislikes, and well, personal space bubbles. This family isn’t exactly the hugging kind. And Honey is a big fan of the personal bubble. Oh, they seem to enjoy occasional scritching and scratching, a little brushing, maybe offer a few licks to bare arms, but they don’t really have a lot of use for the humans outside of meal delivery. And of course, that’s just fine. After all, that’s what sanctuary is truly about. Meeting everyone where they are at with respect and love while providing them as much agency over their lives as possible.
Honey and her family are the stars of their own show. If we’re lucky, we get to stand in the periphery and watch, maybe even truly see. While we humans were a little saddened at having our visions of cow hugging dashed, we are no less than delighted by Honey and her family every day. It’s a joy to watch the tremendous courage and adventure they’ve shown in the relatively short time they’ve been with us. And it’s a privilege to be able witness what a tight-knit family they are, to be able to watch Meredith and Nutmeg grow up and spend their lives with their mamas and to see how emotionally bonded they truly are. Just as any other family might be. A gift we don’t often get to see, and certainly one they don’t often get to live. We’re so grateful to you all for making that possible.
And thank you again, Paulette, for making Honey’s special day even more special! We truly appreciate you thinking of her.
Be sure to tune in later to hear how Honey and her family are celebrating her birthday!
Happy Birthday, beautiful Honey!:
Honey and her daughter, Meredith (background):
Meredith “smooching” her mama, Honey, with Betsy (far right):
I bet it’s safe to say Honey and her family never imagined having such strange neighbors, let alone going along on walks with them.
And while most of you may be familiar with our Chimpanzee Pal program, you may not be aware that we also have a Bovine Buddy program! So if you’d like to be, like us, a virtual cow hugger to Honey, or any of her lovely family members, click here to find out more.
Today was busy busy. While the usual daily tasks were in process, we continued introductions that featured a Honey B, Willy B, Cy, and Terry quad. During the beginning they spent a lot of time divided by the mesh while Cy and Willy B sorted things out with plenty of displays. When they calmed down we opened the mesh and they were together interacting for around 50min. A lot of grooming and playing went down today.
Willy B and Cy grooming – Willy B’s lip smacking was epic.
Honey B and Terry engaged in some intense playing. Terry’s mouth says it all.
by Anthony
Today has been another busy day at the sanctuary, so I’m going to forego my usual style in favor of something simple and brief.
I took some photographs with my phone today in order to show you all what it takes to keep everything clean, organized, and functioning around here. Our care staff has to complete many tasks each day, in addition to special projects and weekly chores, and these images show some of those.
One ongoing project has been the weatherization of the new greenhouses. J.B. has been working around the clock (with some help from special project volunteer Adam) to get the panels secured to the outside of these massive outdoor enclosures. The results are already remarkable! The panels will keep the area warm by radiating sunlight inward and shielding the chimps from the winds of winter, so we’re getting them done just in time.
Meanwhile, inside the building, the rest of the team was busy preparing meals, enrichment and meds; shifting and performing safety checks; cleaning all the enclosures; washing heaps of dirty blankets, dishes and chimp toys; and processing a produce delivery that arrived this morning.
It may look like a chaotic mess throughout the day, but things are looking ship-shape right now as I’m closing up the building for the evening.
We occasionally remind people that caregiving for chimps isn’t all fun and games, but sometimes it takes a chimp-less blog post to sell that concept.
Have a great week, everyone!
by Sam Jones
It was a pretty laid back day around the chimp house today. Everyone must still be resting from Jamieween and Lucky’s birthday! The weather was cold and mostly cloudy today, so it was a good day to just lounge around. In the afternoon there was a window of some sun and the chimpanzees in Jamie’s group took this opportunity to explore Young’s Hill. They were out there for awhile, but then it was back to resting again.
Missy watching the others on Young’s Hill.
Burrito between sprints around the hill.
Foxie with her doll.
Jody took her golden beets from lunch onto the hill.
I couldn’t decide which photo of Annie I liked the best, so I added them all!
This is how I found Willy B lounging this morning when I was opening up the chimp house.
Katelyn took these great photos of Honey B interacting with the foot box today.
Just as I was adding the title of this blog “Quiet Days” Willy B started rolling this scooter back and forth. I think it’s dinner time!
PO Box 952
Cle Elum, WA 98922
[email protected]
509-699-0728
501c3 registered charity
EIN: 68-0552915
Copyright © 2024 Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. All Rights Reserved. Site by Vegan Web Design