Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for June 2022

The 4th Annual Running of the Cows

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Past the wetlands, up the mountain, across the stream, between the scary gates, and through the forest to the upper pasture we go! It’s time once again for the cows to head to their summer pastures. And this year, they’re exploring a new part of the sanctuary’s 90-acre property.

As you may know, the cows actually moved a few weeks ago but I’ve only now gotten the chance to put a video together. They’ve really been enjoying the upper pond pasture and most nights they don’t even return to the barn.

We’d like to express our gratitude for your kind and generous comments on yesterday’s blog about Animal Sanctuary Caregiver Day. Diana and I, along with the Board of Directors, are grateful for the staff every day but you all have expressed our sentiments better than we ever could. Though we will be getting them food next week and it turns out you can actually say a lot with food.

Speaking of caregivers, we’d like to introduce you to our newest staff member, Jenna! Jenna interned at CSNW while attending Central Washington University and then gained valuable experience at other chimpanzee sanctuaries before returning to the northwest. I’ll let her more fully introduce herself next week in her first CSNW blog post.

Here’s Jenna getting in good with the boss:

Birthday wishes from Jane!

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Thank you so much, Jane Fantoni, for sponsoring a day of sanctuary in celebration of June birthdays and for sharing your own special day with us all!

“Happy Birthday to all June birthday chimps and human chimp-lovers! Since I have now officially turned the big 7-0 (plus 1 day) I am delighted to celebrate joy with you all. Wishing you all big hugs and many more happy days to come.”

Happy Birthday to you, too, Jane! Thank you for your kind and generous heart and for allowing us to celebrate so many wonderful events, chimps, and humans along with you.

Dora and Honey B:

Burrito and Missy:

Rayne and Terry:

Dora, Lucky and Cy:

Annie, Negra and Jody:

Animal Sanctuary Caregiver Day – Share Your Thoughts!

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Tomorrow, June 10th, is the 5th annual Animal Sanctuary Caregiver Day.

It’s nice that there’s a day set aside to consider this very niche profession. Many caregivers spend their days in somewhat obscurity doing the very emotionally and physically difficult work of caring for captive non-human animals.

Here at CSNW, the caregivers are somewhat more public-facing because all of the caregivers on staff contribute to this very blog, which, to be fair, is an additional duty on top of everything else they do at the sanctuary, but it is also a way that they can share their work and their unique perspectives.

We try to recognize volunteer caregivers here on the blog too, because they are also very important in providing a good life for the chimpanzees and bovines at the sanctuary; plus they improve the lives of the humans too!

For this year’s Animal Sanctuary Caregiver’s Day, I invite you, our dedicated supporters, to submit in the comments of this post what the caregivers at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest mean to you. I know that your words carry a lot of weight for everyone here, and I would love to be able to give all of the caregivers a morale boost after a challenging (though rewarding!) several months.

I personally will be forever grateful for our staff who give their hearts, their time, their expertise, their careful consideration, and their passion to provide the sixteen chimpanzees and four cattle at the sanctuary the individualized care that they so deserve. I continue to be impressed by everyone who works and volunteers here.

Now you go 😉

 

Happy Birthday, Donna!

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Thanks so much, Donna Dinsmore, for choosing to celebrate your special day by sponsoring a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees!

“This is my birthday and I would love to have the chimps celebrate it with me.”

Donna, there are so many ways you could spend today and it means a lot to us that you thought of the chimps! Happy Birthday from all of us here at the sanctuary!

Missy:

Missy’s daughter, Honey B:

Terry:

Gordo:

Rayne and Willy B:

Playing with Missy

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As many of you know Missy is what we call a chimps’ chimp. She will have these amazing long play sessions with her chimp friends. But as for us human friends she will bless us with a play session from time to time. So when you get to play it doesn’t matter how long it lasts, it’s just special that it happened!

Bonus photos!

Jody enjoying some yellow goats beard flowers:

Negra foraging for grass:

Gordo was hanging out in the sunny warm Riverview greenhouse. Look how handsome he is!!

Gordo grooming himself:

 

 

Happy Birthday, Karen!

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Sisters, Julie and Karen Olson, are long-time friends of the chimpanzees and we’re so happy to get to join in Julie’s celebration of Karen for her birthday!:

“I am sponsoring this day for the chimps in honor of my sister Karen’s birthday. She hasn’t had the best year in many ways. One thing that brings her joy is keeping up with the daily doings of her favorite chimps. She has followed their journey ever since they arrived at the sanctuary. Happy Birthday, Sis, and may the rest of year get better from here on out.”

Thank you so much Julie and Karen for your dedicated friendship and support of our sanctuary family!

Karen, we hope today fills your heart, just as you both help make possible for the hearts of all the chimps and our tiny bovine herd. Happy Birthday from all of us here and all the good thoughts for the year ahead!

Generally speaking, I’d say the sanctuary’s siblings are much the same as most siblings. Laughing one minute, fighting the next, but still sharing a lot of joyful moments together. It’s a delight to watch their relationships grow whether they’ve been together for years or are just getting to know one another after years apart. Regardless of time spent together, it’s particularly endearing to see their shared connections and similarities, both physically and in personality.

(A side note about our resident siblings: Cy and Lucky are full siblings, Dora and Gordo are half-siblings, and Rayne is half-sibling to Lucky, Cy, and Honey B!)

Half-sisters, Rayne and Honey B:

Mave, Rayne and Honey B:

Half-sisters Lucky and Rayne making a Dora sandwich :):

Mave, Honey B, Rayne and Lucky:

The Boss Has Returned

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First thing is first. I want to apologize to you all! With all the excitement of planning, setting up, and watching Dora’s birthday celebration yesterday, I forgot to provide all of you, our wonderful supporters and followers, an update on Jamie’s recovery. Dr. Erin said she was recovering so well that she could be reunited with her family, and just in time for the Tiny Forage Celebration yesterday. I will take the blame on that one.

Yes! The boss has returned and it was as if nothing had happened during her absence. She seamlessly reestablished herself in her group with no fuss from the others. We are still monitoring her recovery sites to make sure everything continues to heal properly and no one messes with it too much. *ahem*Dr. Missy*ahem*

With Jamie’s couple day absence, she has been eager to get back to her morning patrols around Young’s Hill.

While we were on our first patrol of the day, I watched as both Missy and Annie foraged for morning prickly lettuce.

With it being such a nice day, Missy and Annie’s morning foraging made it seem like it was a great day to hold a lunch forage. Since we had some leftovers from yesterday’s celebration, and they seemed excited for that menu, we included that into their lunch! (With the addition of bok choy.)

As they went onto Young’s Hill, Jamie was carrying a bag of primate chow that was given to her earlier. As she made her way up the hill, she decided she couldn’t be bothered carrying around her bag of chow. Once she left her bag behind, there was a very exciting food grunting of the one who snatched it up. It was none other than Negra!

Jamie seemed to think carrying around her chow occupied her hands, which she needed to grab as much food as she could:

Missy made her rounds collecting as many tomatoes as should could:

Jody made off with a nice haul:

After finishing the extra bag of chow she “found,” Negra’s eyes were set on bok choy:

And then there’s this guy:

He was enjoying his forage and got a good amount…

Until this…

After having his fill, he noticed this caregiver taking photos.

And the Bronx cheers began:

It was off to the races for us and that ended my photography duties on that side of the Chimp House for the day.

It was a pleasant day all around!

*Bonus Photos*

Willy B, Dora, and Mave in a grooming line:

Rayne eating her dinner corn:

Once again, I want to thank everyone involved in making yesterday possible. Without your support and donations, we wouldn’t be able to throw such a successful party! There are other way to help as were continue our day-to-day tasks and prepare for our next celebration (Honey B’s birthday June 11th!). Be sure to check out our wishlist to see what we need to continue providing the best care that we can for these 20 (bovine included) unique personalities.