Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Archives for April 2026

Neggie and Missy’s Play Date

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With Negra living apart from the rest of her group, we have been having group members join her throughout the day. Usually one of the other chimps is waiting to join her before breakfast and it makes it pretty easy on us caregivers to facilitate this.

This morning, Missy was not shifting and I took it as an opportunity to have her join Negra. She immediately joined Neggie and extended her arm to her as a greeting. After breakfast, they startled wrestling and we got to witness the sweetest play session! It was such a delight to see them play together. These type of moments feel even more special right now because of Negra’s health.

❤️❤️❤️

Enjoying the View

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Negra doesn’t get around as much these days due to her declining mobility, but every day she still makes her way out to the greenhouse. Once there, she makes a cozy nest for naps and takes the time to look out onto Young’s Hill. From there she can feel the breeze and admire the sunshine and blue sky, while she enjoys her lunch at her own pace.

So here’s a glimpse into an afternoon with Neggie – captured in a series of photographs.

 

Latest on Negra

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A few weeks ago on the blog, Diana discussed Negra having weakness in her legs after a brief conflict. For those who may have missed that blog, there was a brief conflict in Jamie’s group, which is not abnormal, but post-conflict Negra was not using her legs as normal. We isolated her in hopes that she would have some time to rest, recover, and hopefully go back with her group in a few days. However, it has become apparent since that Negra will not be bouncing back. This is why I would like to give you all an update today. I want to speak honestly about Negra and it may be hard to read. Though Negra is here with us now and no concrete decisions have been made, Negra’s mobility is declining sooner and faster than we had hoped. I think it’s only fair to write a blog to mentally prepare everyone for the time when our sweet Neggie may have to leave us. As I write this, I too, am trying to wrap my mind around it.

As caregivers, we learn to compartmentalize. So, while something as huge as Negra’s health scare is going on, we still have 15 other chimps that rely on us. In some ways, it has made it easier for some of us to prolong our denial of the reality of the situation. I think when the initial “injury” happened, we had a bit of hope, but with the underlining gut feeling that we knew Negra may not return to 100% someday.

Over the current weeks that Negra has been recovering in the front rooms, while still getting Greenhouse and Young’s Hill time as well, we have noticed a lot of muscle deterioration making it even harder for Negra to get around. While she hasn’t lost the ability to use her legs fully, she heavily relies on her upper body strength to move her from place to place. Despite that, she has continued to look weaker.

Negra is currently getting the best medical care possible. It’s hard to justify an anesthetic procedure at this point because of how extremely stressful they are for her and her PTSD, as well as the general risk to put a senior chimpanzee under anesthesia. The good news is Negra is still sound of mind, she is her usual Neggie self, not showing too much discomfort, still gets excited to see her friends, spends time soaking up sun in the Greenhouse, and her interest in food has not wavered! However, with her mobility rapidly declining and it being harder to do her daily tasks, we are assessing overall quality of life. We want to give Negra the respect and dignity she deserves and we do not want to watch her suffer. We have been so lucky to have shared many years with Negra! We do not know the time frame for how much longer Negra has with us, but we are providing Negra the things she loves the most and making sure she is as comfortable as possible, and yes, that includes rolls.

This feeling is really hard to put into words because I can’t imagine a world without Negra. I simply can’t imagine showing up every day and her not being here. Negra is what sanctuaries are built for. To give chimps like Neggie a place to decompress, a place to feel safe, a place to call home. Chimps making it to sanctuary feels like a win, but for a chimp like Negra to live in sanctuary and get to experience all it offers, now that is a success.

Negra is an integral part of her group. Negra shows up for her loved ones. She, like Jody, is the glue of her group. Negra consoles her friends during times of need. Negra helped every person in her group through their grief after losing Jody. Negra was the person to lift everyone’s spirits. She added levity and tried to get her friends back into a routine. But she didn’t just console individuals in her group, Negra helped her caregivers move through grief too. I wrote about this in a blog called Grief, where I mention that I had been away when Jody passed. Negra took care of me when I returned. She invited me to sit with her while we played, groomed, and spent time together; I would like to believe we distracted each other from our grief. It’s funny when I think about it, because it is my job to take care of her and Negra knew exactly what I might need, or rather we might have needed. That is a human sentiment. I can never really know; it could all be a coincidence. However, whenever it is Negra’s time, it is hard to think about what her group will be like without the person who takes care of them.

Something that I have been trying to focus on is that Negra built a beautiful life here. Even if Negra had made it only 1 year in sanctuary, I think we would have felt successful. To see Negra live here for the last 18 years is unbelievable. Negra had so many hardships in her life and people have selfishly taken so much from her. However, CSNW has been able to give something back to Negra. The special thing about sanctuary is that every chimps’ needs are different and for Negra we met her where she was. Her sanctuary looks different than how Jamie navigates her life in sanctuary. Negra needed a place that understood her. She may not take advantage of Young’s Hill everyday and choose to spend time of the nest instead. I’m so thankful for all that we could provide for her.

It will never feel like enough time with Negra. I am proud of Negra for her resilience, being unapologetically herself, creating a family within her group, and choosing to live this sanctuary life the way Negra wanted to live it. I am proud that we as sanctuary did our job for Negra. And I hope that this helps as we process the idea of Negra not being here forever physically, but always with us in spirit.

What Lies Beneath (A Visit From the Dentist)

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On Sunday morning, Terry was anesthetized and brought into our veterinary clinic for a planned dental check-up and physical exam. Here’s more from Dr. Erin:

Terry managed to sustain injuries to not just one but both of his lower canine teeth in the last three years. The right one was attended to immediately and a follow up exam showed healing and no infection. The missing left lower canine was observed some months later. While things can look okay from the surface and even on follow up x-rays after a tooth is injured, months later, problems can develop. Terry has been on the docket for an exam but knowing that extraction of one or both of the teeth on follow up was a possibility, we jumped at the chance to have a visit from the Dental Coalition for Conservation so Terry could get the expert treatment he deserves. The x-rays did indeed show that it was in Terry’s best interest to have both of these canine teeth extracted. 

Terry did well throughout the procedure and was back in recovery later that morning. The effects of the anesthesia and pain meds kept him lying low for the remainder of the day but by the following morning he was eating and blowing his iconic raspberries again. Yesterday afternoon, he felt good enough to rejoin his group.

The team prepares Terry for intubation and IV catheters:

Dentists from the Dental Coalition for Conservation take x-rays:

Terry receives an updated echocardiogram while the dental work is being performed:

With the dental work complete, he receives an abdominal ultrasound:

Back in recovery, the team monitors Terry until he begins to emerge safely from his anesthesia:

The chimps are fortunate to have such skilled and caring professionals volunteering to care for them. We are grateful to the Dental Coalition for Conservation, including Charles Dyer, DDS, MS, Lacy Dyer, Founder and Managing Director, and Kerry Robson, DDS; the vet tech team, including Jen Garcia, Jamie Kenfield, and MacKenzie Kantwill; soon-to-be-graduating WSU veterinary student Larrea Cottingham; echocardiogram technicians Jamie Sheehan and Amy Owens; and sonographer Korie Krause.

This afternoon, Terry had lunch with his family, who get to join him in his soft food diet for the next several days:

George’s 22nd Birthday in Photos

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Today we celebrated George’s 22nd birthday, and his first here with us at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest! Caregiver Krissy planned his big day, and made sure it was filled with many of his favorite things. On the menu were grapes, blackberries, oranges, apples, strawberries, pears, baked sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes, mini peppers, cucumbers, ice treats, bucket of juice, and popcorn balls made with popcorn and a small drizzle of honey and peanut butter.

 

Party favors for George’s big day included lots and lots of paper for nesting and many fuzzy socks and sweatbands. The party started indoors in the playroom before branching out onto The Bray, where Krissy had hidden several whole fruits at the very top of The Bray! George was too excited about all of his juice buckets and ice treats to make the journey all the way to the top of The Bray initially.

George enjoys his party.

George

Gordo (L) and George (R)

George with an ice treat

George’s friends Cy, Gordo, and Rayne scored the whole fruit loot! Gordo is pictured here with a whole apple in his mouth. As I write this blog George is on his way up The Bray, while playing with Rayne.

Gordo and his apple prize!

One member of George’s group, Terry, was not able to be present for today’s party. Terry underwent a routine exam and some dental work yesterday, and stayed separate from his group today to allow him to have a little more time to rest before rejoining them. He is doing well and should be reunited with his friends tomorrow. We’ll share more about his exam in another post.

Terry, up close and personal!

We celebrated George’s birthday with Negra and friends as well. Negra continues to be separated from the group as a whole due to her mobility issues, but has play dates with different members of her group each day. Today, Burrito and Foxie joined Negra for a forage celebration in the Greenhouse. Jamie, Missy, Annie, Foxie, and Burrito had a breakfast forage to start off the day! Honey B, Willy B, and Mave also enjoyed a forage celebration, but I didn’t manage to get any good photos of their party.

Come back tomorrow for a video of George’s birthday festivities!