Today we celebrate three years since the Lucky Six arrived! I truly can not imagine life without them. Each one of these chimps brings so much life to this sanctuary. When I think about the day that they arrived, the day was so full of excitement. We had done it, we had reached our goal of expanding the building to take in more chimps to provide another chance of security and a life of choice. The Lucky Six have grown so much in their 3 years here. We have watched chimps like Gordo grow confidence and comfortably with things that are unfamiliar. We have watched the group of six become a group of nine, which has provided them with more social opportunity. Watching chimps like Dora become a social butterfly and Rayne being able to use one of her best strengths, her social savvyness, to help her group navigate and build friendships! We watched all of J.B.’s hard work paid off to build the Bray, their 2 acre outdoor habitat. To be able to watch Rayne walk outside like she had done this everyday of her life was certainly one of the many highlights of my career! I could go on and on about how amazing they are, but I think that when it comes down to it we are just so lucky to have them and we are all the better for knowing them!
Cy:
Gordo:
Terry:
Dora:
Rayne:
Lucky:
6 on 6/26, how lucky for them and just two days before my owm birthday. i know they are in the best place they could possibly be to live their best chimp life. i hope someone got a library card in your local county for Cy. Bless all their sweet faces for many more 6/26 celebrations.
An early happy birthday to you! Hope your day it like today was! (at least it was great on the coast)
What a beautiful video! Fun, delicious food and full bellies. I loved that hug & tug bit between the two chimps at the start of the video and they were just so exuberant. Thank you EVERYONE for all that hard work and for giving those six beautiful chimps a second chance of life and their rightful place in the sun.
How sweet were Rayne and Beezus at the beginning!
Cy’s technique is improving! Poor Gordito, I think he wanted a little help.
Dora’s adorable head waggle and Lucky scoring the last coconut!
Yes, that big, joyous, exuberant (good word- thank you, Susan Kathleen) hug at the beginning was so wonderful to see. Made my heart sing!
Yay Gordo, persistence
They’re all amazing and beautiful. Thank you for giving them a good home and love.
The celebration going on between them at the start when they saw all the goodies was just wonderful to see! Well done Lucky getting that last coconut.
Loved watching the party! I’m glad to see Gordo finally got into his coconut, although I see he still has some work to do on his coconut cracking form! He’ll get there! Poor Willy, most of that water ended up on the floor.
So happy to see Lucky score the last coconut!
Honey B was mentioned in the video when a mango was being handed to Dora. Does she tend to steal food from Dora?
Three years already?! In some ways it seems their arrival was yesterday and in other ways it feels as if they have always been in Cle Elum. What a fun celebration—coconuts AND mangos!!
That little dance between Rayne and Honey B is one of the best moments ever! And my favorite boy Willy B mastered his technique of breaking the coconut but the sweet milky water is still elusive for him. Willy B needs to give Gordo a few tips. One thing Gordo excels in is stick-to-itiveness! No wonder he ran inside so quickly for that scrumptious mango. The mango is so easy to eat, juicy at the very first bite. But I did love Gordo’s determination to crack that coconut and get the inner goodness. At one point I thought he cracked his tooth! And Terry, he is so handsome. I love his big perfect ears.
Happiness is finding Home! May you forever savor every moment.
oh the frustration of getting into that coconut! :rofl: i can relate. what a great video.