Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today’s day of sanctuary was a gift donation for the Eilmeses in Colorado: Kurt, Erin, Isaac, Ace & Elyse with Happy New Year wishes from Kevin and Diane Eilmes. They gave this gift in the hope that their Colorado family enjoy the chimps as much as they do!
Thank you, Kevin & Diane!
Here’s a favorite video from the previous year that illustrates one of the most important aspects of sanctuary life for the chimpanzees – companionship:
And here’s a photo of Annie and Missy holding hands:
Can you believe it? It’s actually 2017!
A new day of a new year – fresh and waiting for what is to come.
Friend of the sanctuary Kathleen, who has donated her amazing graphic design talents on many projects for the sanctuary over the last few years, has the unique privilege of having this day in her honor.
David Guernsey sponsored today in Kathleen’s honor with this message, When asked what Kathleen wanted for Christmas, her reply was a gift to her favorite friends at Chimpanzee Sanctuary NW. January 1st seemed like a fitting day as I know she shares your excitement in the expansion of the sanctuary property. Happy New Year CSNW.
Thank you, David, and thank you, Kathleen for all of the wonderful things that you do for your chimpanzee friends.
Here’s to Hope.Love.Home…Sanctuary for more chimpanzees!
I thought I’d bring back a video in honor of Kathleen from last year of BFFs Missy and Annie, because this kind of love and silliness is what sanctuary is all about:
and some bonus photos of Negra, because… Negra:
If you’re signed up for our e-news, you should have received an email yesterday from me about our year-end fundraising goal with a match pledged by our amazingly supportive board of directors, who play the vital role of guidance and oversight for the sanctuary.
As usual, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest donors have exceeded all expectations, and we’ve blown past the original goal of raising $10,000 (NOT including the board’s matching donations!) by midnight tonight.
As I said in the email yesterday, supporters are truly the roots of the sanctuary that allow us to remain strong and grow into the future.
In celebration of exceeding this year-end fundraising goal (you can still add to the total before midnight tonight), and in anticipation of the exciting year to come, we felt it was appropriate for the chimpanzees to have a toast!
Instead of champagne, we gave them one of their favorite special occasion drinks – sparkling apple cider.
Cheers to everyone!!! Bottoms up!
Jody
Burrito
Negra
Our second sponsor-a-day today comes from Thom and Judy Nash in honor of their adult kids.
Here’s how this came about, in the the words of Judy, “This year for Christmas our family decided to start a new tradition of making a donation to a shelter or other worthy animal cause rather than exchanging gifts. I’d like to sponsor a day at the sanctuary because I can’t think of a better cause.”
They chose today r because it was Judy’s father’s birthday and thought it would also be the perfect way to finish 2016!
Judy and Thom have been donors for a few years, and we are so pleased to learn more about their family and happy that the chimpanzees can benefit from their big hearts.
We’ve picked out a photo from past parties for each set of the “kid” honorees in celebration of ringing in the new year.
We have two sponsor-a-days for this last day of 2016!
The first is a Christmas contribution from Jim and Kim Horton’s family in honor of Vicki Fagerlee, mother, mother-in-law and grandmother (Grams).
Vicki was the winning bidder of the sought-after behind-the-scenes visit and volunteer opportunity that we had in our end of summer online auction. She flew over several states to make the trip, and we had the best day at the end of September telling her stories about the chimpanzees while she prepared their food and enrichment and got to know more about how the sanctuary runs and the personality of the chimpanzees.
Jim and Kim said this, “Her visit there this year was a treasure and she has a special place in her heart for Chimps! We chose New Year’s Eve as day of sponsorship to help the Chimps ring in the New Year! All the best in 2017 and beyond!”
Big thanks to Vicki for sharing her love of the chimpanzees with her family and to them for honoring her with a day of sanctuary.
Vicki, your support has put a smile on all of our faces, and your donations this year have truly helped to ring in the new year with hopeful plans for the future. Thank you!
Anna and I decided to give the chimps some treats today to celebrate both the first night of Hanukkah and Christmas Eve. You may have noticed that we are pretty strict with the chimpanzees’ diet – nothing with added sugar, very little salt, and rarely any processed foods. Most of their diet consists of raw (sometimes cooked) fruits and vegetables, seeds, nuts, and a bit of commercially made primate chow, which is like a protein biscuit.
Even when we treat the chimps to something they don’t get very often, we try to stick to our dietary goals. It keeps them healthy, and they still love the food they get everyday!
In celebration of Christmas Eve, we set out “milk and cookies” (watered down warm almond milk + primate chow). I’d say it was a hit:
Burrito:
Jamie:
Foxie:
Missy:
Negra:
Jody looking pretty happy:
For the Hanukkah part of the celebration, Anna made some delicious looking (and delicious tasting – we had to try them for ourselves) salt-free potato latkes and I made some sugar-free chunky applesauce to go on top.
The chimps ate the latkes so fast, we weren’t able to get many photos.
Foxie brought France Dora to the meal, because she’s cosmopolitan like that:
Jamie being served by Anna with Burrito on the right:
Missy being served with Burrito looking on (I promise Burrito got at least his fair share too):
Annie took her latkes to the doorway to savor:
Definitely a win for fun food today!
In between the treats we humans came up with, they found some of their own…
And made some time to rest too:
Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and holiday wishes to everyone! There will be even more treats for the chimps tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who supports the sanctuary – you make EVERY day a celebration.
J.B. shared a slo mo video of Jamie displaying yesterday (her slowed down vocalization sounds pretty intimidating!).
In keeping with the theme, below is a video of all seven chimpanzees taking part in displaying earlier today.
If you are interested in this sort of thing, you might also find this video that shows and explains a conflict among the chimpanzees, a fascinating watch.
