Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Diana

Love a Chimpanzee Day 2023 Party!

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Thank you again to Monica for going above and beyond for the chimpanzees and making Love a Chimpanzee Day an annual celebration for her friends. You can keep the celebration going by making a donation on our GiveBIG page! BIG thanks to those who have already made a gift towards our goal. We really appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Here are a few photos from the party that Grace and Sabrina helped obtain for the blog. I like the series of three below of Missy maneuvering on the fire hose with her two coconuts!

Foxie:

Annie:

Burrito:

Negra:

Here are two creepy photos I took from the window of the Marmot Mountain Playroom while we were setting out a pre-party party of kale and popcorn. Creepy because neither J.B. nor Chad knew I was there taking photos of them:

It’s Love a Chimpanzee Day 2023

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Can you believe it’s Love a Chimpanzee Day again already?! Supporter Monica Best named April 23rd Love a Chimpanzee Day and has sponsored this day each year since 2010 for her chimpanzee friends at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, creating a calendar-worthy official holiday and another excuse to throw a party! That’s a lot of years of love that Monica has shared with the chimps.

With our birthdays so close together, Monica and I have once again teamed up by creating a joint fundraising page for GiveBIG, and we invite you to celebrate this day by checking out our page and making a contribution.

Donor Donna is matching up to $20,000 in funds raised through the end of GiveBIG on May 4th, so your donation now is doubled! HUGE thanks to donor Vicki for making a gift on our page that encouraged us to raise our initial goal!

Monica’s love of animals is not exclusive to chimpanzees – she’s also studied wolves and worked in dog and cat shelters. She’s had many feline and canine friends over the years and created Love a Chimpanzee Day on her birthday in honor of her cat Ozzie during a difficult and uncertain time when Monica was fighting cancer. She credits the sanctuary (especially Negra) with helping her in her years-long battle with the disease and the aftermath.

We are so incredibly grateful for Monica and all of her generosity. She’s been instrumental in the expansion of the sanctuary these last several years and in helping encourage others to give.

You can help us celebrate today and the on Monica and Diana’s GiveBig fundraising page or the sanctuary’s main GiveBig page.

Happy Love a Chimpanzee Day, everyone!!

Burrito loves Duran Duran
Monica is a fan of Duran Duran and we took this photo of Burrito during the 2011 Love a Chimpanzee Day!

Two Stories

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Story One (in one sentence): These are the feet of an explorer named Burrito.

Story Two: Rayne was grooming Mave on the catwalk of the Oakwood Greenhouse, with Dora lying next to Mave. Honey B spotted them from the Riverview Greenhouse and headed all the way over to join them.

Then she enticed Dora to groom her.

We used to think of Honey B as a loner.

This little moment made me happy.

The end.

Today is for Lisa Stuverud!

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Longtime donor Lisa Stuverud generously sponsored today, on her birthday, with this message of gratitude:

It’s been another trip around the sun ! Today my heart is full and I want to sponsor a day for everyone at CSNW with tremendous gratitude for the joy that was Missy’s first living tree climb and the shenanigans that was Honey B’s hose heist. CSNW sustains me and we are so blessed to be a part of it. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts !!

Missy and Honey B, mother and daughter, do share a certain confidence! Thank you for sponsoring today, and happy birthday from all of us, Lisa!

Interested in sponsoring a day of sanctuary for yourself or a loved one? It’s one of many fun ways to make a donation! Visit the donate page and scroll down for options.

Grooming Party

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Since you are reading this, you likely know that grooming is an important activity within a chimpanzee group, whether that group is in the wild or in captivity. Because us humans are a part of their social network, we take part in grooming with them, both as the groomer and the groomie (is groomie an actual word? grooming receiver is perhaps the more technical phrase).

Grooming, like many social behaviors, can be somewhat contagious, in that if you see some friends grooming, you might join in or you might find someone else to groom with you.

Please, May I Have Your Chow?

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There are so many sharable moments that happen in a day, but sometimes I’m not sure if a video is worthy of the blog. So, I thought if I added some cinematic flair to this story that I caught through the window while I was cleaning the Mezzanine, it would make it seem that much more blog-worthy.

If you didn’t know before, now you know what those white bags are for on our Amazon Wish List!

Cy’s 33rd Birthday Celebration

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There’s a lot of love going out to Cy today on his 33rd birthday. Thank you to everyone who sponsored the day in his honor, made donations in his name, and purchased the limited edition Cy’s book club merchandise!

Today was also the first day of Daylight Savings Time. For CSNW, that means that, while we turn the clocks back like everyone else, we keep on the same actual time schedule for the chimp house. So, expect your blog posts an hour later than “usual” (or even later if I’m writing the blog, especially if it’s a party day).

If you haven’t already, please do think of Cy this evening and wish him a happy birthday in your heart. We don’t know what we’d do without him and his leadership over the sometimes rowdy group of nine!