Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for October 2023

Jamieween 2023

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Happy Jamieween, everybody! The time has finally come for us to celebrate our boss, Jamie Chimpanzee! Today, Jamie turns 46 years young! We celebrated today with some of her favorite things: pomegranates, leeks, bell peppers, pear cider, and new boots and books!

We also included two new items! Inside the cups of pear cider were ice skulls with “brains”(raspberries)!

The second item was “Chow for Brains”! A gracious donor purchased silicone brain molds from our Amazon Wish List to help us make brains out chow dust, banana, pomegranate juice, and apple sauce! With so much commotion and excitement from today, I completely forgot to take photos of them. You can catch a small glimpse of Terry eating one here:

For us caregivers, this Jamieween was bittersweet. It is the first Jamieween we celebrated without our celebrated Great Pumpkin Thief: Jody. But with Dia De Los Muertos beginning tomorrow, we decided to honor our beloved Jody by decorating her burial site and to offer her some of her favorite forage foods, this included big leafy greens! You can watch the video to see the set up and who stopped by to visit. Interestingly enough, everybody left that pumpkin where it was. This is probably just a huge coincidence, but I am choosing to believe they left it there for her.

We hope you all have a happy and safe Jamieween!

Here are some photos from today!

Missy

Burrito

Terry

And Annie (leaving Jody’s site)

Mora excited for today’s menu

Alpha Male

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Some dominant male chimpanzees maintain power through brute force and intimidation. But not all.

Traits such as kindness, fairness, and tolerance are often overlooked in discussions about chimpanzee dominance hierarchies, yet they can also be effective as a means to achieve status. Cy is a good example of this. It’s true, he has been known to steal a chow bag or two from his group mates, but he’s just as likely to use his alpha position to defend the underdog and keep the peace as he is to enrich himself.

This video shows just a small example of the myriad ways in which Cy’s leadership is called upon to maintain stability in his group.

Moments

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It’s been six months or so that Cy’s group has had access to The Bray, their two-acre outdoor enclosure, and in that time we’ve seen some pretty big wins for that group. Whether it be Lucky deciding to be brave and head out for the first time, Willy B deciding that the grass might not actually be so bad, or Cy making it all the way to the top of the enclosure- I think I can confidently say that it’s been a point of compassion satisfaction for all of us here.

We’re pretty transparent in this daily blog, which means that we’re also pretty vulnerable. We have the responsibility and opportunity to connect with you to share the stories of the chimps in our care, which means that we can celebrate wins like the above together, but also that we mourn the losses that come with sanctuary life together, too. This year has been a lot of both and you’ve seen us write about sensitive topics like compassion fatigue and grief.

Some days, for me, it all comes together and it’s not solely compassion fatigue or compassion satisfaction. Some days it feels like both.

This afternoon I was walking (read: meandering aimlessly) around the chimp house hoping for a blog idea to come to me. After walking back and forth a few times, I finally went out to the chute to see if anyone in Cy’s group was enjoying the afternoon sun despite the chill in the air. Terry, who had been relaxing in the warm winterized greenhouses, came with me and went out onto the Bray. I went walking with him and turned around to see that Lucky, Rayne, and Cy had joined us too. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing, the birds were chirping- and there we were, experiencing it together.

One of the foundations of our work here is ensuring that the chimps have as much choice as possible in their day to day lives, whenever we can. Whether that’s respecting someone’s choice to not shift out of a certain enclosure, accepting if someone doesn’t want to hang out with us humans, or giving them a variety of enrichment that they can choose to interact with (or not), we do what we can when we can. The caveat is that, due to the hand that humans have dealt them, they are here with us in sanctuary and we have to make big & small decisions for them every day.

I’m not sure if this makes sense, but watching Terry and his friends enjoy a random afternoon walk on the Bray on a chilly fall day in the foothills of the Cascade mountains epitomized these wins, losses, and choices in that I witnessed their freedom to choose an activity that I believe brought them joy. Today’s win, a moment of peace on the Bray, stemmed from tough decisions about how we could set them up for success in such a big, new enclosure and give them security in their choices. Then, as I’m standing on the Bray with Terry and his friends, I look over and am happy to see Annie heading in from being outside on the Hill. I look over a little bit more to see if anyone else was out and I see the spot where Jody is buried.

Wins, losses, grief, acceptance.

Some days the wins feel extra big, some days you feel the losses extra hard. And, some days when the sun is shining and the wind is cold, you feel it all at the same time.

Terry resting his eyes in the warm, winterized greenhouse:

P.S. Have you heard about our upcoming Comfort & Joy Auction and accompanying festivities? You can pick and choose how you want to participate, but we are asking you to take a moment to send us a video telling us which chimpanzee at CSNW brings you joy and why! Click here for details and instructions.

Honey B vs Target

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Last time I wrote about Honey B, her and I were just beginning to get to know each other with short grooming sessions and casual interest on her part but now we have moved up to actual play for prolonged periods. To describe my first game of chase with Honey, it was like when you’re a kid and you’re playing outside with a new friend and then you realize the sun is going down, the street lights are coming on, and you need to go home but all you want is to continue playing with your friend. That’s not to say she is not still the ultimate agent of chaos…today’s video is evidence of that. Ms. B is left alone briefly with a plastic target which we hang on the mesh to get a chimp to stay stationary in one spot, usually during mealtime, and within a couple minutes she manages to unscrew the hook and take off with it. She is nice enough to come show us what she has and then, once she loses interest, she just drops it outside of the caging for us to collect.

 

 

Postponing Winter

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Despite the sudden cooler temperatures (it was a crisp 33 degrees arriving to the sanctuary this morning), the sun was out and shining today. The sun felt so good and warm, that I thought it’d be a perfect day for a forage on Young’s Hill. Jamie, Missy, Burrito, Annie, and Foxie agreed with me and were happy to do a lunch forage out on the Hill. Negra requested her meal to be inside for a lunch party of one, presumably so she can be where it is warmer.

One of the highlights of the morning, as you will see pictured below, is Jamie drinking from her tiny teacup. We made up a Gatorade pool, which is one of Jamie’s favorite things, in their Playroom. The entire group usually sits down and drinks up. Jamie loves using a cup to drink from, but today it was especially funny to see her use the tiniest cup possible to drink from.

On the other side of the building, Cy’s group is also soaking up the sun in their Greenhouses, their chute, and the Bray.

Rayne:

Cy:

Annie:

Burrito:

Jamie:

Missy:

Rayne:

Drawing on a package we received from a donor 🙂

A Rawrrr-ing Good Time

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Like Kelsi wrote in yesterday’s blog, there is no such thing as a dull moment here at CSNW. Sometimes I think the phrase “keeps you on your toes” was coined by / for chimpanzee caregivers.

This morning, we got to work and it was a brisk 34 degrees. Kelsi and I hopped in the side-by-side to do our perimeter check so we could let the chimps into their respective outdoor enclosures. The two sides of the chimp house operate simultaneously, so we have two shifters during morning cleaning. The lead caregiver for the day shifts doors in the original building and the second shifter shifts the new building, so we buddy system the perimeter check.

When I opened the door to Young’s Hill, I didn’t expect anyone to go rushing outside since it was so chilly. I was proved wrong, though, when Jamie went right out and around we went for an early morning patrol.

By the time we got around the top, we had been joined by Missy and Burrito. The early morning walk with Jamie turned into some cardio when Burrito took over and we raced down the hill. Because who doesn’t love cardio in the morning, am I right?

As you all know, one of the best holidays of the year is coming up in a few short days. The countdown to Jamie-ween is officially in single digits! I grew up in a family that loves Halloween and I always look forward to pumpkin carving, dressing up, and lots (and lots) of candy. And, because I’m a mature adult, I’ve been really wanting to purchase one of those big blow up T-Rex costumes that are pretty popular online for a while. Amazon Prime day got the best of me this year and, you guessed it, a few days later a giant inflatable T-Rex showed up at my door.

Best day ever? Maybe.

And over time, we’ve learned that some of the chimps think that masks are pretty funny. Gordo especially loves a troll mask we have that was donated a while back! So I wanted to bring the costume to work and share it with my friends.

With a little help from my human coworkers I was able to show it to both groups of chimps! First I went back to Cy’s group and made sure all the chimps were around while I put it on, so that they knew it was me inside it. Gordo and Dora both seemed really interested in it! The people in Jamie’s group were more unsure, so I didn’t spend much time on that side of the chimp house. Jamie, Negra, & Burrito saw it acted like it was just another Wednesday. Annie, Foxie, and Missy weren’t into it- which is totally okay! The fun part about random enrichment things like this is that it’s okay if some people don’t want to engage. Some people though, like Gordo, enjoyed the short T. Rex intermission. 🙂

If you’re looking forward to Jamie-ween like we are, be sure to get your tickets to an exclusive Behind-The-Scenes of Jamie-ween virtual sanctuary visit on 10/31/23 at 12:00pm PT. If you want to attend, but have to work or have other responsibilities, still consider registering, because we’ll send out a link to the recording to everyone who registered so you can watch it at your leisure. 🙂

We’re super excited to share some of Jamie-ween with all of you, since it’s such a special holiday to all of us here. It’s also the perfect kick-off to our Comfort & Joy auction, which will be going live on the 31st and will run until November 18th. To celebrate all things Comfort & Joy, we are also offering a Comfort & Joy Virtual Gathering event on November 12th! This will be a great opportunity to learn more about the sanctuary, connect with us via chat, and just enjoy an evening full of comfort, chimps, & joy. What could be better? 🙂

See y’all soon!

P.S. Thanks so much to everyone who submitted a review in Great Nonprofits for us yesterday evening! We won a spot on the 2023 Top-Rated Non-Profit list, which is awesome. 🙂 Thank you!

Never a Dull Moment

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I don’t think I have ever experienced a dull day here at CSNW. I truly don’t believe that there is such a thing with chimps. Especially when you have a chimp like Honey B always keeping you on your toes, or a chimp like Missy who seems to want nothing to do with humans, but all of the sudden you are playing chase and tug-a-war. Or when you put out enrichment, like a giant box, just hoping a chimp like Cy will hide in it while his friend Willy B playfully beats the box from the outside. Everyday there a lot of things happening here, even when we are there to observe. I think it is a testament to what sanctuaries like Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest can do. Sanctuaries offer dedicated care, security, stability, and opportunities so that every chimp can flourish and grow.

If you think we are as great as I do, we have an opportunity for you to spread your kind words! We would love it if you shared your love of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest TODAY by going to this site: https://greatnonprofits.org/reviews/write/chimpanzee-sanctuary-northwest and giving us a rating. The deadline for us to be a “top rated” nonprofit for 2023 is October 31st and we need nine more people to submit a rating. You all say such nice things about the chimpanzees, the staff, and the sanctuary everyday, so we thought you’d take this challenge. You can even take something you’ve already said and copy and paste it as a rating. And we can update the silly badge on our website and feel good at the same time. Thank you!