Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
“A Wish for a Friend”
Wishing you a rainbow
For sunlight after showers—
Miles and miles of Irish smiles
For golden happy hours—
Shamrocks at your doorway
For luck and laughter too,
And a host of friends that never ends
Each day your whole life through!
-Irish Blessing #25
We hope everybody is having a fun and safe St. Patrick’s Day.
Today we wrap up our “Love for…” series with the one and only Foxie!
Foxie was born on August 8, 1976 at the Southwest Foundation for Scientific Research in San Antonio, Texas. Her records indicate her mother was Winny and her father was Brian. Foxie is one of 11 babies Winny gave birth to before passing away at Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico.
During her time in the research lab, Foxie was used in hepatitis vaccine research and as a breeder. Foxie gave birth to four kids during her time as a breeder. She had a set of twin boys, David and Steve; records indicate David died at Alamogordo Primate Facility due to unknown causes and no date given. Steve passed away in 2015 at Alamogordo as well. Foxie also gave birth to two daughters: Angie (the 1st) and Kelsey. Angie currently lives at Save the Chimps in Florida and Kelsey made her way to sanctuary at Chimp Haven in Louisiana but unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago.
Foxie, and the rest of the Cle Elum Seven, were rescued from a windowless basement at the Buckshire Corporation in Pennsylvania in 2008.
When Foxie first arrived, she didn’t want to interact with any of the enrichment items including blankets, pushing them all aside. Then one day, a bright pink-haired Troll caught her eye.
Since then, Foxie is almost never seen without one of her precious dolls, which now include Strawberry Shortcake, Dora the Explorer, and a variety of Disney princess dolls. Foxie loves her dolls as if they were her children, though she seems aware they are not actual living things. It’s not uncommon to find her carrying a doll (or two) in her mouth during a patrol around Young’s Hill…
carrying a doll on her back like a mother chimp would with their young…
taking naps or just relaxing with her dolls…
and playing with her dolls!
Though it may seem endearing to most watching Foxie interact with her dolls as children, it’s also a brutal reminder of her past as a test subject. Would she have raised her actual kids (David, Steve, Angie, and Kelsey) the same way she does with her dolls? We will never know that answer because she was denied the chance to raise her own children. I would wildly guess though that she would have treated them the same and be a fun mother to them.
Foxie is affectionately called “Tiny” by her caregivers. She is the smallest one in her group, but don’t let her size fool you. Foxie embodies the adage “tiny but mighty.” Her tiny stature shouldn’t be taken as weakness and she’ll show you how serious she can be. Here is a series of her double kicking the door separating Foxie and her group and Willy B and his group.
Foxie can be suspicious of new caregivers. She seems to know the concept of which human can do what. She has been known to “tattle” on new caregivers who are training. Before I was hired, I was a volunteer and decided train to be a Level III volunteer caregiver. As I brought breakfast out for the first time to the Greenhouse, the chimps lined up waiting for their food service to begin. As I began giving smoothies out, Foxie ran inside the building screaming. “Weird,” I thought. Then a few minutes later, Foxie came back out to the Greenhouse, with Katelyn in tow! I figured Foxie had ran inside to tattle on me because I was serving them food for the first time. Up until then she had only seen me in the context of cleaning enclosures. This had happened a few times when caregivers are training to serve meals since. Foxie will go to the food service, and if it’s someone who hasn’t served before, she will go find Katelyn to let her know there is a “stranger danger” situation happening! Since then though, Foxie has accepted me and even allows me to babysit her dolls from time to time.
Foxie is a good friend to everyone in her group, though that is not reciprocated all the time. More so, Foxie had a special relationship with Jody.
Jody was, from some caregivers’ point of view, Foxie’s protector. Though it has been a rough period adjusting to the loss of Jody, Foxie still has a good friendship with Burrito and Negra.
Foxie deserves all the friends in the world! Whether is be chimpanzee, human, or inanimate object! Thankfully, Foxie has 20 humans who call her friend through the Chimpanzee Pal program. If you wish to be someone who can symbolically call Foxie a pal, be sure to sign up to be her Chimpanzee Pal!
On this February 17th, let’s take today to celebrate our love for our very own Gordo Chimpanzee!
Gordo was born on July 19, 1988 at the aboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) to his mother Andrea and father Les. Through his parents, he has had a few full and half siblings at other sanctuaries, including being half-brother to our very own Dora!
Like the other chimps born at LEMSIP, Gordo’s start to life began with being taken away from his mother shortly after birth and raised in the nursery with other infant chimpanzees and living in a small suspended cage.
When LEMSIP closed in 1996, Gordo and several others were sent to the Wildlife Waystation in Southern California. When he arrived, he lived in a small group including Mave and her longtime cagemate Goliath. According to the records we received, Gordo was separated from the group due to fighting with Goliath and placed in a group with Cy, Rayne, and Lucky, with Terry and Dora joining shortly afterward. This group would remain intact all the way through 2021, when Wildlife Waystation closed and the group, known as the Lucky Six, moved to Washington State to call Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest home.
Though I consistently tell everyone Lucky was the first chimp I met when this group arrived, it was actually Gordo I technically first met. When the ramp of the trailer carrying the chimps came down, we were trying to decide the logistics of who to unload anf bring doors first. When I stepped foot inside the trailer, the first transport cage I walked in front of had a chimp breathy panting and butt pressed up to the caging asking for reassurance. I asked who this was and J.B. replied, “Gordo.” The butt pressed to caging thing hasn’t ended and is a now a classic trait Gordo does when he wants reassurance from the caregivers. This doesn’t happen often. As when he first arrived, Gordo still does prefer the company and attention of his groupmates over the humans’, though now he has definitely opened up more to the humans since.
One of the first things we learned about Gordo was his affinity for boxes.
Gordo has really adopted the mantra of “If I fits, I sits!”
Also, “Even if I don’t fits, I sits!”
How did I end up being the one to write about Gordo? Easy. If there were a personality quiz that lined me up to any of the chimps, I am confident I would align with Gordo more than any other chimp living at the sanctuary. Like to socialize, but also love alone time, especially after socializing. Likes to stay out of drama, but also can’t stop watching drama… and maybe egging it on sometimes depending on mood. Mostly serious, but sometimes goofy. Independent but fiercely loyal. Laugh at our own jokes. Yup. I would definitely align with a Gordo personality trait.
One of the jokes Gordo plays on me is spitting at me at every meal service. I know they’re jokes and not out of anger or spite because Gordo has two very different spits. Similar to several others here, like Foxie, Honey B, and Terry among them, there are two spit settings. There’s the very accurate and small spits. These are attention getters or calls to play. Then there’s the mouthful, high rate, high area coverage types of spitting. These are the ones that show discontent. On average, I would say I get maybe 15-20 spits on average from Gordo and any meal I’m serving.
After serving a meal to Gordo, I usually come out looking like this:
He has remarkable aim, if you’re wondering. He usually runs away chuckling after a spit, usually running away to load up on with more water. To be fair, if the roles were reversed, I would probably do the same to him too because I think he would understand.
Gordo is indeed a funny, funny guy! I am so grateful for the 7 supporters who call him a Chimp Pal! If you would also like to become Gordo’s Pal be sure to sign up! All you support helps provide care for Gordo and the other residents of the sanctuary. I hope through these blogs you get to know Gordo like how I know him!
With the Super Bowl under a week away, Burrito has some training tips for Seattle Seahawks (sorry Patriots fans) as they prepare to represent the Pacific Northwest!
Staff are conducting several training meeting this afternoon, so please excuse me for the short posting. So today’s blog and video is going to be a hodgepodge of clips and photos that haven’t found their way into a blog due to either length or missing context.
Misc. Photos:
43. That number has been circling around my head today as I came into the Chimp House this morning. How could my friend be turning 43? I remember growing thinking of the time adults would tell me to “act my age.” That saying has been upmost rejected by Burrito. At what age did he protest acting his age? I have no idea, but I would guess it was sometime in his adolescence.
Burrito was born in a laboratory on this day in 1983 to his mom, Karen, and father, Mack. Off the top of my head I’m not sure what happened to his mother, but I do know his father was able to live out his remaining years at Save the Chimps in sunny Florida. When he was born, he was given the name “Raj” by his human caregivers. Unfortunately, at the age of 1 he was put into the hepatitis B testing. At one point he was he was transferred to the Buckshire Corporation where he was kept as a pet before being leased to a small attraction. A year later he was returned to Buckshire and his life as a test subject was renewed. It wasn’t until 2008 when he was rescued and came to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. His days being used in hepatitis trials was finally over.
Since then his days have been full of play, laughter, and yes, chaos. He still creates a ruckus within his group and has the girls screaming at him, though I personally don’t see how he gets the blame since it usually starts with someone *ahemAnnieahem* starts screaming at him as he’s minding his business. But behind all the chaos and ruckus is a sweet lovable guy, and more recently, protector of Foxie who has been unjustly targeted from time-to-time by Jamie and her battle buddy, Missy. Though he gets into these squabbles, he’s always fairly quick to make up with a nice bout of play and some grooming.
This past year, I was lucky enough to attend a conference with other caregivers from around the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance umbrella. This includes caregivers from Chimp Haven, Save the Chimps, Center for Great Apes, Project Chimps, Fauna Foundation, and others. It was always funny to introduce myself by saying I am a caregiver at CSNW and getting the reaction of who? Where? No fault to any of them. We are a pretty small sanctuary in comparison to the others. But when I would describe where we were located and our chimpanzee residents, it was almost without fail I would just utter the words “Burrito” and all of a sudden getting the reaction “Ooooh Burrito! You are the ones to take care of Burrito!”
Burrito is known and loved not just around this country, but around the world. Especially by his caregivers here. I love arriving at the sanctuary in the morning and trying to get my rounds of saying good morning to the chimps but not being able to get very far in the process. It’s almost immediately when I unlock the door leading to the chimpanzee areas that signature sound of Bronx cheers can start to be heard. I swear at this point I hear his Bronx cheers to the tune of the Jaws theme music now. First it’s subtle and in the distance. But then it grows louder, grows closer, and the frequency picks up as he hones in on his caregiver prey… err I mean play partner. And what luck for him, one of his good friends, caregiver Krissy, was the one who got the privilege to plan his birthday party. Boy did she knock this one out of the park. They day was filled with coconuts, pasta, and everything bouncy! He seemed to really love today, so major kudos to Krissy.
I’ll wrap this up and let you enjoy the video of him enjoying himself today with this message: Burrito is my friend. He is all of our friend! For me personally though I truly don’t know where I’d be without this guy in my life. I’m proud to call him my friend. Besides all the play and laughter, he inspires me in more ways than one. One of the most important lessons he has taught me is that tough times will come. But no matter how long or how tough those times may be, enjoy living in the now. Soak in the moment. Learn your lesson (if there is one). Move on. Get through it with play and laughter with your loved ones. It softens the hard times.
I love you my friend! We all do!
Today was a Christmas to be remembered! It was such a great party for all the chimpanzees here. So much was happening we had no choice to split up the footage to make two videos. So please enjoy Jamie’s group’s Christmas celebration today, and be sure to come back tomorrow to watch the other groups’ parties! Including George’s first CSNW Christmas! I won’t say much other than he was really, really, really excited!
And please remember to donate! We are getting so close to our $100,000 goal by tomorrow in order to unlock an additional $40,000! Every little bit helps!
Help us reach our end of the year goal here!
