Hi, everyone, and welcome to the birthday edition of our daily blog! Today, we celebrated Missy’s 47th birthday. She adores all things tomato, so of course we had to have tomatoes at every turn for her birthday party. Missy is a special chimp who is more acrobatic than any human I know- seriously, she will sprint across Young’s Hill in no time. It is very impressive. She often spends time in play sessions with her BFF Annie (there might be a few extra precious clips of this on today’s blog:) ) and she is witty, loyal to her friends, and often too cool for her human caregivers.
Missy’s journey to sanctuary has been a special one. Back in 2014, Diana wrote a blog post about Missy and how she almost didn’t make it to CSNW. Diana said it best, so I have copied some of that blog here:
“About a month before the chimpanzees left Buckshire in Pennsylvania (the private facility that owned them and leased them to different laboratories for decades), all of the chimps had health check-ups. During these check-ups, the veterinarian discovered that Foxie and Missy had uterine tumors.
Buckshire quickly arranged for both of them to have hysterectomies. The surgeries went fine, but when they were transporting Missy back to Buckshire, she crashed. She was brought back to the veterinarian under manual ventilation and had a very weak pulse. From what we were told, they “worked on her for 10 minutes and brought her back.”
We didn’t find out about this until later, and it came as a shock to know that she was so close to not having her chance to enjoy a sanctuary home. It remains a reminder to me that each moment of sanctuary, each moment of life, is invaluable.”
We are grateful every day for Missy, her group of 7, and the newly integrated group of 9. Every moment spent with them or in their presence is unique and priceless.
Happy, happy birthday to you, Missy!!!!
Cy’s group also got to celebrate and that video will be coming tomorrow (thanks, Kelsi!). 🙂
One more note- there is still time to register for the Chimpanzees in Need virtual update meeting on Friday, August 26th at 4pm PT! We are so close to safely re-homing all of the Wildlife Waystation chimps and this will be a short online Zoom meeting where NAPSA will share updates on construction of new homes, transportation efforts, and where we are with raising the funds to complete the campaign this year. There will also be an update from us, CSNW, on how the 9 are doing! Be sure to register now and tune in for the update.
Now, some photos of Missy throughout the day:
One of our favorite party decorations:
Burrito enjoying the forage:
Negra, enjoying her loot from the forage in the comfort of the green house:
Jamie watching everyone participate in the forage:
Thank you to everyone who donated party items for today!!
WOW !!!!!! great day for a party……HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISSY…………?
Today’s blog is a feast! First, the wonderful title. Then the scary story about Missy almost not making it. And the close-up of her with what looks to be still a whole tomato- the look on her face shows her total appreciation.
Thank you, and Happy Birthday, Missy!
What a miracle Missy is, and what a gift her existence is to Annie, Jamie, Burrito, Foxie, Jody, Negra, and Tomato farmers! My undying gratitude to those who brought her out of death into life in 2008. I so wish Magnificent Dr. Missy — athlete, self-taught simian dermatologist, tomato lady extraordinaire — a happy birthday and yet another new year of being the coolest kid on Young’s Hill.
And she has never stopped making the most of that time!
She really did get to gorge herself on her fav–as did Neggie….3 heads of lettuce! Good thing she mist enjoys a low-value foodI wonder where she hid that sunflower?
I Iove that you put the first big pile on the spot on the platform that she always swings over to during a greenhouse forage–easy access to the goods!
Looked like she was gathering her things to get out of Dodge near the end–who was approaching?
Thanks again to the Tomato Fairy!
Oh, and Grace….those punny boys got to you already, huh? :laughing:
Grace! Award winning title for todays important post! And the tomato counter cracked me up too. 19 tomatoes….that you know of. Wow! What a celebration feast that was. I bet when Missy snuggles into her nest tonight she will wonder to herself why every day isn’t like this! 🙂
Since Missy always looks athletic and young at heart it is hard to imagine that we almost didn’t have her in our lives. Maybe she runs and climbs and swings every waking hour because she is so grateful for her second chance. Go Missy Go!! I love you.
I forgot that, Kathleen! The tomato counter is almost as good as the pasta cam!
Happy Birthday Dear Missy,
You are a Hot Tomato !:tomato:
loved the tomato counter, looks like everyone had a blast.:birthday:
Happy birthday dear Missy! What an amazing party! I wonder if she will save some tomatoes for tomorrow?? I’m so glad she enjoyed herself so much. She deserves every happiness. They all do. Thank you to all who make this possible. Thank you Grace for a wonderful post and that cute title! Hugs to all.