Jamie has been enjoying some recent donations of knit winter hats.
Jamie’s box lunch
Unfortunately I don’t have a photo to go along with this post, but I wanted to share the latest Jamie story with all of you.
As you know, Jim, with the help of Brian and Audrey, recently built us a wonderful shed right outside the door of the kitchen at the chimp house. In fact, Audrey and Jim were out a few weeks ago in some pretty chilly weather adding some finishing touches and starting to paint it. They refused to come in to get warm – I swear I asked them several times. These are some dedicated volunteers.
Anyway, we have, as expected, started to fill the shed, and I noticed today it already needed some straightening. I spent some of the morning moving things around, consolidating, and opening up new gifts that were put there the other day (a much-needed boot scraper and door mat!!). I ended up with several empty boxes, one that was quite large and full of lots of packing paper. So, I decided to put it in one of the front rooms before letting the chimpanzees in for lunch.
When I let the chimpanzees into the front rooms from the playroom, Jamie immediately went for the box. I had tossed it up on the bed in room two, but she wanted it on the floor. After getting it to ground level, she climbed right inside it and wrapped the packing paper around her. Of course I had lots of good food for lunch that she didn’t want to miss, but she also didn’t want to leave her box. While still inside the box, she scooted it and herself right up to the caging so I could serve her the carrots, green onions, celery and apples Elizabeth had prepared. Jamie occasionally got out of the box during the meal, but went right back to it for the next course.
I just love that Jamie sums up a situation and knows exactly what she wants to do. I think that if I saw that box in my bedroom, I probably would have climbed right in too.
Blogs talkin’ up the chimps
Katherine Sather just posted info about our new 50 Pal Pledge on the awesome and informative Seattle community focused Citizen Rain blog
It would be great for folks to comment on the blog and thank her for helping us with the pledge. We’ve already received a new pal since she posted!
We’ve had some other bloggers over the past few months write about CSNW and the Cle Elum Seven. Here are a few links to the blogs:
stuff about artstuff and stuff (a blog post from the artist who designed the CSNW logo)
Laura Bee Designs (the promotion to benefit the sanctuary has past, but her merchandise is still neat!)
Super Vegan (the original post is not there, but Foxie’s photo is, and the blog is lots of fun)
Treat Yourself and give to the Cle Elum Seven
We are really excited that Cory Michael and Fresh Facials & Skin Care is participating in our Holiday Shopping fundraising. Here’s why we’re so excited – Cory Michael products are cruelty free, eco-conscious and naturally made. They even use organic AND local ingredients when possible. Fresh Facials & Skin Care is a Seattle spa that uses Cory Michael products and offers some pretty irresistible spa options such as organic pumpkin facials, European fresh facials and back treatments (plus lots more).
There are several ways that you can support this great business. For the entire month of November, 15% of all sales – all facial products bought in stores, at the spa, and even online, as well as all spa services at Fresh Facials & Skin care will be donated to CSNW. As though that were not enough – Fresh Facials is having an open house on November 21st from 12-5pm. During the open house, 20% of all sales will go to the Cle Elum Seven!
So, if you live in the Seattle area, go to the Open House on November 21st! You can RSVP (or drop by). Here’s how to get in touch: Address: 535 Pontius Ave N #126 Seattle, WA 98109, Phone: (206) 420-4723, email address: [email protected].
You can contact Fresh Facials to reserve a spa treatment if you can’t make the open house. There are also local stores that carry Cory Michael products.
No matter where you live, you can buy Cory Michael products online and 15% of sales (or 20% on November 21st) will go to your chimpanzee friends. Seriously, check out their website – there are great products for the face, body and home that you’ll want to buy now!
CSNW calendars and bags!
A brand new Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest “store” will be appearing on our website soon. We have some very exciting items to start out with, and I need your input to decide how much we should order. There will be t-shirts, note cards, calendars and tote bags in the store.
I’d like to know, to begin with, about your interest in the calendars and tote bags. The calendars will likely be priced at 1 for $20, 2 for $30 and 5 for $60 and the tote bags will likely be $15 each, 2 for $25.
Please comment to this post or email me privately ([email protected]) to let me know how many calendars and tote bags you think you will order. Think big here – holiday gifts for everyone in your office, perhaps?
The calendar features photos of all of the chimpanzees – some that will be familiar to blog readers and others that are exclusive to the calendar. Here’s a preview of the cover of the calendar, to give you an idea of the contents:
The t-shirts and tote bags will feature a design created by Kim, our wonderful volunteer graphic designer – it is a illustration rendered from a photo of Jody. We’re going through an awesome new company called So Tons Creative for the bags and t-shirts (more praise will be bestowed upon Cassie, co-owner of So Tons Creative) soon.
The tote bags are 100% organic cotton and the kind that are perfect for grocery shopping, so it makes sense to order enough to carry all of your groceries. You can help the environment by saying “neither” to paper or plastic and you can help the Cle Elum Seven while you’re at it!
Pomegranate feast!
The chimpanzees had a fantastic feast of pomegranates for lunch today. What a great fruit for chimpanzees – it took them most of the afternoon to devour two a piece, and they loved them! Like everyday, they had many interesting foods today including kiwi, pineapple, a banana bread made by Denice (Burrito and Negra were big fans), artichokes (not favored by many, but Negra ate all of the hearts out), mini-peppers (a favorite of all) brought to them by their friends Nissa and Amy in Snoqualmie, and pasta with sauce and fresh green onions prepared by Jessica (Jamie ate most of that, food grunting the whole time). Oh, and granola that I made a couple of days ago in our brand new slow cooker/crock pot which was donated by the chimpanzees’ good friend Tamela. I had no idea granola could be made in a slow cooker – luckily Tamela also supplied us with a cookbook. I can’t wait to see what the volunteers cook up now!
Annie
Burrito
Foxie
Negra
Changing Annie
To continue our ongoing look at the changes in the chimpanzees since they first arrived at the sanctuary, here is Annie. Besides the really obvious differences such as hair growing in where there were bare patches and increased muscle tone, on thing we’ve noticed looking back at photos is that their faces have a new firmness. Faces of adult chimpanzee are pretty wrinkled and show a lot of character, but when they first arrived from the laboratory, the faces of the Cle Elum Seven had a very loose and drooping appearance, where now their faces still have wrinkles and are full of character but appear much more firm, healthy, and even younger.
Annie – day one of sanctuary life (June 13, 2008) after living in laboratories for decades:
Annie six weeks ago at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest:
Annie two days ago with Halloween treat bag: