Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for April 30, 2025

Quality Time with Mave and Dora

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One of the best parts about this job is watching the chimps spend quality time with each other. A few days ago, I was walking past Dora and Mave grooming and they barely noticed I was filming because they were so engrossed with each other. Watching interactions like this is always a reminder to slow down and savor the time we have with the ones we care about. Click here to watch Mave and Dora groom!

It’s Wednesday so obviously there are bonus photos!

Cy:

Terry:

I wanted to share some photos of Jo, because I am always thinking about her, but especially today. She is always and forever in our hearts.

 

In memory of Jody, from Tobin

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On this second anniversary of our beloved Jody’s death, Tobin has sponsored a day of sanctuary in her memory for which she shared these thoughts:

“At the end of March, a friend and I attended a funeral mass. As we left the church, I told my friend: ‘Most weddings are the same, but every funeral is different.’I elaborated that I had attended some obsequies which, due to the character of the departed, were indeed (as the euphemism has it) ‘Celebrations of life.’ I gave of a friend, born in 1932, who had been diagnosed with leukemia in 1958. Four decades later, she attained her final victory over her ailment. ‘Even in her final months’, I said, ‘when she was almost thin as a skeleton, her inner beauty seemed to illuminate even more.’

On this somber anniversary I am reminded of what I found – and continue to cherish – that so endeared me to Jody. My desk where I reside is graced with several photographs of her. They capture the beauty of her brown eyes, the drooping lower lip of her smile, the pert folds of her ears, the look of her delight as she carries in her forage from Young’s Hill. As Jody cradles a pumpkin in her arms, I can almost hear her joyous dinosaur’s groan.

Pleasing as it is to look at these photographs, they can only begin to intimate what I found even more beautiful about Jody: her heart and soul, her embrace of life in the Cascade Mountains with those she loved: Negra, Annie, Missy, Burrito, Jamie, and her dear friend Foxie, and the human caregivers who provided for her needs and, at last gave her a life worth living.

Once again, I am reminded of how I miss seeing Jody roaming the landscape of Young’s Hill. In the absence of her body, I am – we are – left with the beauty which illuminated from the heart and soul of Jody. And that beauty, the good treasure of her heart by which Jody lived, is a grace beyond gold.”

Jody, Missy, Annie, Burrito, and Foxie:

Negra and Jody: