Today was Willy B’s 33rd (real) birthday and we think today’s video of the festivities speaks for itself, enjoy!
Also, special thank you to Paulette Wrisley for sponsoring the day for Willy B!
Archives for November 2023
Honey B & Co.
It is so fun to watch a chimp like Honey B, who has always preferred human interactions, to seek her chimp friends out instead. Watching Honey B and Dora both flourish socially in their group has been one of the most rewarding parts of my job, as well as witnessing Mave find her soulmate, Dora. Please enjoy this video of Honey B, Dora, and of course, Mave!
Chimpmas is right around the corner! We have started to add enrichment and items that we need around the chimp house on our wish-list!
Mora:
The beautiful Rayne:
Thankful Every Day
It’s the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, which means… it’s Giving Tuesday! 🙂
If you haven’t heard of it before, Giving Tuesday is an internationally recognized day of giving as it aims to promote generosity as a part of every day life. Which, if you ask me, is just a sincerely lovely & comforting thought.
We rely on the generosity of you, our supporters, to do the work we do. All our residents deserve sanctuary and you are what makes that happen. We are grateful, every day, for each of you.
If you find yourself wanting to participate in Giving Tuesday, I would encourage you to donate by clicking the link here. There are so many ways to donate- from sponsoring a day of sanctuary, to donating directly to our produce fund, becoming a Chimp or Bovine Pal to one of our residents, or donating stocks– I can confidently tell you that every donation is felt and appreciated. Today, and every day, no donation is too small.
There are also the non-monetary ways to support the sanctuary, which I feel like sometimes get overlooked but are just as important! Sharing our posts, for example, to your social media or with your friends and family help us increase our reach. Which, in turn, helps us connect and share our residents stories with more people. That is so, so important to us. We owe it to our residents to share their names & stories as far & wide as we can. A simple share helps us do just that!
On that note, I hope you enjoy the short & sweet video today of best chimp friends Missy and Annie. 🙂
Annie, from the photo vault, during a sweet summer forage:
Also, in the honor of giving thanks, look at this amazing pile of donations from a week or so ago! Thank you so much to everyone who donates items from our wish lists or who sends us chimp-approved items. We are currently adding items that we need for our upcoming Christmas celebrations to our wish lists, so please check it out if you’re interested in helping us celebrate! 🙂
Al fresco
Snow on the Cascade peaks means that winter is on its way to the sanctuary. Until then, we will continue enjoying lunch with a view on these beautiful fall days.
The Whole Family
I got it into my head today to take photos of EVERYONE for the blog. I’m still not sure that was a good idea, but it turned out to be fun walking around and seeing what every single individual was up to at various points during the day.
The stand-out revelation from this experience was that Negra was the most active of the whole bunch (well, besides Burrito of course). So, I won’t bury that lead and will share the photos I got of her first:
I probably could just end the blog post there, because it’s a little tale unto itself, but I was already hip-and-brain-deep in this idea of getting photos of everyone, so here we go…
Annie with her fab hair:
Burrito, who invited multiple people to run up the hill with him today:
Foxie contemplating a stem of something:
Jamie, contemplating poking the camera:
Missy contemplating joining Burrito outside:
Missy very up-close in the loft (I had to get a tall ladder for this one):
Photos on the other side of the building were challenging, but I persevered.
I had the most challenge with Cy because he was either in an awkward high-up perch or sandwiched between his adoring chimp fans:
I did finally get this photo of him grooming Willy B. Even when doors are open between rooms, the chimps will choose to groom through the mesh. I don’t know why they do it, but I always find it charming:
Adorable Dora:
Honey B, shown here in the Chute, followed me around in my photographing journey:
Gordo was another tough chap to photograph today. This is a favorite spot of his in the Lupine Playroom. He can see a lot of other spaces in this corner (did you know there was a study that showed chimpanzees and gorillas in captive settings like corners?):
Pensive-looking Lucky in the Marmot Mountain Playroom:
although most of the time she was this close to the camera:
Mave taking a break from grooming on the catwalk of the Marmot Mountain Playroom:
Rayne doing some serious lounging in the warm Riverview Greenhouse:
Terry being perfectly Terry, with a mouthful of a paper wadge and water:
Willy B keeping an eye on me:
Not wanting to ignore the other important members of the family, I asked J.B. to take some candids of the bovines:
Betsy in motion:
Meredith in between bites of hay:
Nutmeg in all his glory (did you know that the cattle add extra hair for winter? They are delightfully furry right now):
A boop from Honey:
J.B. also snapped this photo of some deer he and Jake passed on their way down from the upper pasture:
I hope you enjoyed our efforts today to bring everyone to you!
Cy & Terry on Duty
It was a busy day in the chimp house today and our new maintenance worker, Jake, was installing steps on a slope to make our perimeter checks a little less hazardous. You see…some of us are accident prone and tend to fall in the mud and snow a lot (*ahem* Jenna). In the afternoon JB had to go into town to run some of his own errands so Cy and Terry took over supervising Jake until dinner time. I was only able to capture some photos of them coming back from their work day to get a well earned meal, and then captured video of Cy unwinding from his long work day with a little YouTube time.
Cy returning from a long afternoon managing the employees
Terry had a busy day as Assistant to the Supervising Manager
Bonus photos of Terry enjoying a nice paper wadge to start his day off right!
Becoming Friends with Jamie
Being friends with Jamie is a wonderful gift, but one that certainly must be earned! As one of the newest caregivers here, I have been enjoying getting the privilege to know Jamie, and wanted to share with you all about some of the joys of Jamie.
Jamie can be a complicated friend to have. Much like how we are not always in the best of moods, she too has some days where she is feeling more social than others. But the quiet moments of just being with Jamie are more than worth enduring anything that she might (quite literally) throw your way! She is an individual who knows exactly what she wants and will go to great lengths to communicate that to you if you can be of assistance. Her happy food grunts when she is eating one of her favorite foods are one of my new favorite sounds (she was really enjoying her red peppers with dinner tonight!). I hope you all enjoy today’s video to see how Jamie and I’s friendship is progressing so far. I look forward to getting to know so much more about her!
