Jamie spent her childhood living in a human home, and like all chimps who begin their lives in human homes, she quickly grew too strong and unmanageable. Jamie was sold to a research lab when she was about nine years old, and spent the next 22 years in hepatitis vaccine trials and possibly other invasive studies.
Jamie is one of the lucky ones. When she was 31, she was “retired” from research and moved to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. Chimpanzees who have lived with and around humans often pick up human habits and interests – Jamie files her nails, ties knots, and loves (and sometimes wears) boots. Jamie is different from the chimpanzees you see behaving like humans in movies and on TV; those chimps are trained – brutally – to perform and are often duct-taped into their clothes. At the sanctuary, Jamie chooses the objects she likes from the various enrichment items we provide each day and she does what she wants with them: nests with them, plays with them, ignores them, destroys them, or wears them.
A few days ago we had a visitor whose beautiful boots Jamie was clearly obsessed with. In a moment of overwhelming generosity, our visitor left Jamie the boots she came in with and walked out of the sanctuary barefoot. Jamie couldn’t resist giving her new boots a test run.
That totally made me smile!!!!! The boot on her leg is fabulous!!! ????????
Such a generous lady. Jamie looks beautiful in her boots.
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I love that she has tons of choices every day – as you say she is free to choose
I absolutely love this! Made me smile. I love how well they’re taken care of. God bless!
That is so adorable – I just love the many freedoms all the chimps have – each unique and so very individual in behavior and personality. You make my day worthwhile every day with your always amusing posts.
Jamie you are such a sly devil!! Did you watch your gifter walk to her car barefoot and give her a pant hoot or a giggle? They do look good on you though! I hope you write her a thank you note. You are wonderful Jamie. Don’t change that wonderful personality!!
That brought tears to my eyes. What a nice lady to take off her boots and leave them for Jamie.
Does Jamie have any boots with laces? Never noticed any on the blog,,,, or are laces just so last season.:-)
Hi Holly! There are certain things we don’t give the chimps for safety reasons – some captive chimps have a habit of ingesting things they shouldn’t, which can cause dangerous intestinal blockages. We happen to have one or two of those chimps here, so we’re very conservative with our enrichment safety standards. We avoid giving the chimps long, stringy items like laces because of their potential to wrap around internal organs if swallowed. Jamie doesn’t seem to miss the laces. 🙂
Thanks for your time Elizabeth,,, that makes sense. I had a tinsel eating dog that ended up in a vets office. Seeing the Jamie in her new boots, it crossed my mind if they were more adjustable (and she ties knots) they would fit her unique chimpanzee physique better.
Always looking for boots for the boss!