On most mornings, Jamie is the first chimpanzee the lead caregiver sees when they open up the human door leading from the kitchen to the hallway in front of the chimps’ enclosures. She is often in the loft overlooking the kitchen, and she has a simple goal in mind: make sure her caregiver puts on one of her boots. Lately she has been pretty specific about which boot she wants some of us to wear, so instead of stomping and gesturing at her boot collection located in the kitchen, she sends us a more obvious message.
January mornings
This morning, Jody led Foxie and Burrito on the first perimeter walk of the day!
The sun was out, but a slight breeze made for a very brisk walk.
The Cle Elum 7 love snow, so no matter how chilly they might feel, they still like to collect an icy snack to take inside with them. Jody is no different!
Pathways
Warmer temperatures and some creative plowing on JB’s part have created a grassy pathway around Young’s Hill. While Jamie has been treating it more like a sidewalk, Missy has made it her own personal race track.
Best of 2017!
Last year brought us some pretty great moments at the sanctuary, some of which we managed to capture on video. I picked through the 2017 blogs and thought I would share my 7 favorite videos from the year.
Here they are in no particular order:
1.)
First up! Fun with mister bottles:
2.)
Last summer Jamie became an honorary firefighter!
3.)
About a year ago, Negra injured one of her toes during a fight. Her injury required that our vet do a small surgery on the toe. After a successful surgery and recovery period, Negra went back with the rest of the group and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Her family was happy to have her back!
4.)
Let’s never forget this public service announcement from Jamie Chimpanzee:
5.)
We had some pretty great parties this year!
Here’s Foxie’s birthday:
6.)
And a Harry Potter day:
7.)
Foxie’s joy for new dolls is infectious!
What was your favorite video from 2017? What did I leave out?
Changing it up
With the extra snow and cold weather arriving at the sanctuary, Jamie has altered her fitness routine a bit. Rather than taking full perimeter patrol walks around Young’s Hill, she has decided that fast paced chase (between the greenhouse and playroom) with boot wearing caregivers suits her just fine. Of course, she expects a certain level of commitment to slipping on ice from her human friends, with the occasional break for an outdoor snow snack. This morning J.B. plowed her usual path so she can return to her full patrols as soon as she feels like it.
Bonus: Jody takes in some fresh air.
Foxie's favorite things
Foxie’s love of her dolls is an endless source of heart-melting joy, fascination and mystery to us. If you’ve been following the chimpanzees for awhile you are probably aware that Foxie’s love of her dolls (that we’re aware of) began shortly after the chimps’ arrival to the sanctuary in 2008 with her subsequent discovery of “Trixie” the troll doll. For several years, Foxie lived and breathed troll dolls and showed little to no interest in other dolls or forms of enrichment.
Then Dora the Explorer appeared on the scene and for reasons known only to Foxie, she was utterly smitten. Dora quickly raised through the ranks to join the status of the trolls. While we’ll never know what mysterious criteria Dora met, we were happy to see Foxie branching out with her interests. She became particularly enamored with France Dora. She definitely has a certain “je ne sais quoi” and to this day I think she remains Foxie’s most treasured of all the Dora dolls.
Fast forward a few years and Foxie branched out even further to include Dora’s friends:
It’s hard to resist wanting to interpret Foxie’s behavior with her dolls and in our curiosity to make guesses as to Foxie’s doll criteria, we thought maybe it was the combination of big hair and big eyes. Most recently she’s incorporated the new Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Big hair: check! Big eyes: check!
And then…Foxie threw us a curve ball by falling in love with the new old-style Strawberry Shortcakes. Big hair: meh, not so much. Big eyes: no, beady!
When Foxie adds another doll to her collection that doesn’t mean her trolls and Dora dolls lose their status. Her comfort level just seems to expand allowing her natural curious nature to investigate new things. And it seems her heart feels increasingly safer to let new experiences in. And we certainly know that our fellow animals experience the same emotions we humans do. That said, it’s tempting to read too much into Foxie’s behavior and it’s emotionally appealing and comforting for us to think her love for her dolls is all about a chance to be the mother she was never allowed to be to her four children she gave birth to in the labs who were stolen from her. After such incomprehensible trauma, it’s clear the dolls bring Foxie enormous comfort and joy and I think it’s safe to say she does engage in mothering behavior with them, but at the same time she often beats them up. And I mean beats.them.up!
And so as curious as we are and as well as we know Foxie, just as with any other person, we can never know for sure what she is thinking. Nor would we be so species-centric if you will, to assume. And the thing is, it doesn’t matter. Foxie is Foxie and her happiness doesn’t need definition. Nor does our love for her. Her happiness and well-being, that’s the only thing that’s our business.
It’s been a few weeks since Foxie has received a new Dora and when we surprised her with one a supporter had sent, it was evident that Dora’s still got it. Whatever “it” may be.
Entertainment and a snack
This morning Jamie piled her walnuts, pecans, Brazil nuts and almonds into a little red wagon so she could leisurely eat her forage and examine her extensive “library” of picture books at the same time.
