This Monday, August 8th, we will be celebrating Foxie’s 40th birthday! This tiny woman is known for her joyful spirit and exuberant chimpanzee shenanigans and acrobatics which are more typically seen in juvenile chimps. But if you didn’t believe it before, you can believe it now…age really is just a number.
The chimps are typically happy and playful in the mornings and it’s one of my favorite times of the day with them. Well, boss lady Jamie can be a bit of a wild card, sometimes seemingly getting up on the wrong side of the nest, but even she is often in a lighthearted mood. Members of a chimp family will exuberantly greet one another after any length of separation and the chimps often include us humans in that so when we arrive in the morning they will often come over to offer us a greeting. (And sometimes they completely ignore us!). On the more boisterous mornings, Jamie wants us to don a pair of boots immediately and play a rare game of chase. Burrito sometime runs over with a play stomp ready for a raucous game of chase or tickle. If we’re lucky, Jody and Negra will sometimes run over and greet us with kisses or hand tickles (and if we’re not so lucky, a hand poke). Annie and Missy are often already engaged in a world of joy all their own, chasing, wrestling and laughing with one another. And Foxie is ready for a game of toss the troll or Dora with her doll du jour.
When I went in to say good morning today, Foxie ran into one of the front rooms and greeted me with a huge play face (notice only her bottom teeth are showing which is how chimpanzees smile). This started out innocently enough and then quickly progressed into both of us laughing wildly and jumping up and down like maniacs (’cause that’s what we do).
And then she took it to a whole other classic Foxie-level. She climbed up the caging, flipped upside down and continued to nod her head up and down and laugh hysterically with the biggest play face ever. From the photos, she looks a little wild and upset with all those chimp chompers showing, but trust me, it was nothing but fun and games, Foxie-style. Of course, I was doing much the same on the other side of the caging. Well, minus the hanging upside down bit – that’s all Foxie. (Excuse the poor quality of the photos, but there was a lot of action going on!):
oh my she was such a “goof ball” Thanks for sharing
Wonderful story. Thank you. Love reading about the adventures of the chimps. So grateful they have this kind of happiness in their lives. Thank you for caring for them and loving them !! 🙂
Delightful pictures!
Foxie is 40 years young! These photos are the next best thing to being there this morning, great shots!! The first photo made me laugh right off the bat.
Looking forward to photos from Foxie’s Birthday Celebration…… ; )
Hilarious!!! Tyou know, I have a terribly difficult time getting up mornings. I need Foxie to wake me up (no pokes please). Perhaps nothing shows our kinship more than being able to experience and share humor.
I mean, really. A laughing tickling upside down chimpanzee named Foxie!! Does it get any better? I head to bed now, with a full and happy heart for knowing Foxie.
The only thing better is if she had a troll or dora doll in one of her four hands!
Wouldn’t it be fun to laugh upside down?!?! Thank you for sharing this part of your wonderful job with us! I’ll be there in a couple of weeks for a shift in the chimp house…can’t wait to see the CE7!!
Got up in a depressed mood this a.m. because I’m about to tackle the clean up in the garage to get to curb on Sat. pick-up day. Photos #1 and #2 certainly knocked me out of the downer mood. Just love these pictures and began laughing so loud I woke my deaf dog up. Wonderful photos and creative writing to boot. You folks are the best.
What a great job you all have. I would love to come to work to that!!
I love the playface picture! Your daily posts make my day
The chimps teeth seem to be in great shape. I wonder, with their history and age, why that is? Have they all had cleanings (sedated of course!) since they were at the sanctuary. Or is it a result of the dry chimp food that is part of their diet, which they would have had almost exclusively in the labs and as part of their diet now?
Hi Francoise,
Some have more staining and plaque than others, but for the most part they are in good shape. In may be partly due to prophylactic care they received during their lab days (some of those places kept the chimps in cages so small they couldn’t move but they sure were obsessed with dental care!), but a lot of it is probably genetics and diet. We don’t do routine cleanings here with these guys. At this point, they receive care as needed (e.g. if they have an abscess or broken tooth like Burrito last summer) or we might try to sneak in a dental exam and basic cleaning if they were under anesthesia for another reason. To help reduce the need for dental care, they eat a tooth-friendly diet with no added sugar and they chew gum with xylitol. The chow might help too, as you suggest, just as dry food does for cats and dogs.