Diana

Take Action Tuesday: Tell Geico to stick to the gecko

February 16, 2016 by Diana

Go to the Geico Action Alert now.

We are faced with constant reminders that many chimpanzees out there do not have the happy life that the chimpanzees at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest currently have.

It took many years and many advocates fighting for the CSNW chimpanzees, and others like them, before they finally made it to a sanctuary. This is why it is so important that we continue to spread information when we know of other chimpanzees being exploited or in dire situations.

Though many strides have been made, the entertainment industry has been, surprisingly, slower to respond to public concern about the use of great apes than the biomedical industry. This clearly needs to change.

You have the opportunity today to help usher that change. A new ad is currently running on television by the insurance company Geico that contains a short clip of a chimpanzee. They have tried to deflect our concerns by saying that the American Humane Association asserted that no animals were harmed on set, but the letter they sent to us with this certification referred to the chimpanzee in the ad as a monkey!

Please take a moment to write to Geico about why chimpanzees do not belong in entertainment (you can personalize the email) and share this action alert far and wide.

It really does only take a minute, and it really does make a difference.

Go to the Geico Action Alert now.

Be Still My Heart

February 13, 2016 by Diana

It’s appropriate to get really mushy because it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow, right?

I am going to share something I love about each of the chimpanzees below, but first I need to get mushy about you – Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest supporters.

First, a confession: fundraising has not been my life’s ambition. I’ve met people who I might call “born fundraisers,” and I can definitively say that they posses qualities that I simply do not.

However, the more I do this fundraising thing, the more I appreciate what a unique and special position I am in. I get to make dreams come true – dreams for the chimpanzees, and dreams for donors who support the chimpanzees. We are all very much in this together, with the same goals for the future, and I feel that connection when I talk to those who support the sanctuary.

Not many people have a job that is so fulfilling, and very few people have a job with so much positive feedback. Katelyn and I were talking about this in the office the other day – we regularly have people call or email to not only make a donation, but also to say that they love the work we are doing and appreciate us sharing stories of the chimpanzees, allowing them to feel connected to the chimps as the individuals who they are.

Thank you for being supportive and for sharing your love with the chimpanzees – and with the humans too!

Speaking of which… as I write this, we are just $1,797 away from reaching our $12,000 goal for the Share the Chimp Love fundraiser, which ends at the end of the day tomorrow. UPDATE: big thanks to Julie L. for donating exactly $1,797 after this post was published!

If you are feeling the love, but haven’t yet made a donation, you can share that love now on this page. You can choose to spread the love even further by donating in honor of someone else for Valentine’s Day, or just make a donation for the love of Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy, and Negra.

Below are just some of the things that I love about each of the chimpanzees at the sanctuary.

It would be so fun for me if you also shared what you love about Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy, and Negra in the comments!

I love ANNIE’s serenity:

and her bird noises!

I love when BURRITO’s “chimpanzeeness” really comes through (for the full explanation of the video below, see this blog post from 2013 when it was originally published):

I love FOXIE’S “happy toes” (video from 2010):

I love JAMIE’s brave leadership:

I love JODY’ nesting skills:

I love MISSY’s ability to entertain herself:

I love NEGRA’s playful moments (video from 2011):

Thank you again for being a part of Sharing the Chimp Love!

Messages from Annie, Burrito, and Foxie

February 11, 2016 by Diana

Thank you to everyone who has been Sharing the Chimp Love this week! I am so happy to be ordering donor-selected custom photos and sending out other Share the Love gifts to those who have donated at the different levels.

I am especially in love with these bookmarks and card that supporter and graphic designer Kathleen Corby designed just for this year’s Valentine’s Day.

Did you receive the e-newsletter yesterday? Have you shared the What happens when… video yet?

If you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you’ve probably seen these messages from Annie, Burrito, and (from this morning) Foxie:

How can you resist those three?!

We are over $7,000 towards our goal of raising $12,000 by the end of the day on Valentine’s Day.

If you haven’t already, please share the love by donating and sharing the above video and Share the Chimp Love images – help us reach the goal for this campaign and get us one step closer to the future of expanding the family!

A shock from the past

February 6, 2016 by Diana

When I was gathering photos the other day for the Share the Chimp Love Video, I came across the photo below of Jamie and gasped out loud.

I think it’s been a few years since I saw this image, but it’s very familiar. It was taken in September of 2008, three months after the chimpanzees arrived to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. J.B. posted it to the blog back then.

It was one of the best photo portraits we had of Jamie, and we even used it for some early postcards that we made.

But looking at it now, it’s just not the Jamie of today.

Her cheeks were hollow and her eyes sunken. Her freckles were more pronounced – maybe because they hadn’t darkened from sun exposure yet. And the look in her eyes just wasn’t the determined, curious Jamie that we now know and love.

Compare that before photo with the one I included in the Share the Chimp Love Video, taken last summer:

Or these that I took this morning of Jamie getting the most out of a new book:

Nap Time

January 30, 2016 by Diana

I love taking photos and video of the chimpanzees running around, being active, and getting into mischief. Active chimpanzees are generally happy chimpanzees, and when I watch them explore and run I think of all of the years they lived in small cages.

There’s also something incredible, though, about watching the chimps truly relax.

Today the sun is streaming into the playroom and seems to be making Jamie and Negra very sleepy.

Jamie, in typical Jamie fashion, is curled up in her nest with boots and toys:

Of course, being Jamie, this nap is not going to last very long:

Negra is in her spot on the catwalk of the playroom in front of the window – feet up in the air:

Doesn’t this just make you want to join them in relaxing in the sun?

Bold Adventurers

January 23, 2016 by Diana

Jody, ever the forager, harvested some big handfuls of snow this morning:

This is determination:

Meanwhile, Jamie was passing Missy on a structure:

It looks like they are hatching some sort of secret plan:

Or maybe Jamie always looks like she’s cooking up something:

Encouraged by these bold adventurers, the humans (me + Anna, J.B., and interns Courtney and Anthony) headed onto the hill (with the chimps safely indoors) and plowed and shoveled some more pathways.

Missy chose a high vantage point:

While Jamie immediately checked out the new trail:

Annie chose to collect some more snow and call it a day:

Negra was likely keeping herself cozy indoors:

And Burrito and Foxie (sorry, no photos of them today), took quick forays to get snow snacks. All in all, a very nice day at the sanctuary.

P.S. The buoy / boat bumper ball lives on! Kathleen and Sherry’s predictions were better than some of us who thought it would be deflated by now.

Chimpanzee Strength

January 16, 2016 by Diana

Chimpanzees are naturally incredibly strong. This physical strength, combined with their tendency towards sudden aggression that J.B. touched on in his blog post yesterday, cautions humans who work around chimpanzees to be very, very careful. This is why when you do a quick internet search on “chimpanzee muscle strength,” the resulting articles are often tied to a report on a human who was attacked by a chimpanzee.

The text of this article from 2012 after an attack is particularly helpful in providing information about why chimpanzees are so strong, explaining that the muscle fibers closest to the bones are much longer and more dense in chimpanzees than humans, presumably making those muscles much more powerful.

When the chimpanzees arrived at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in 2008, their muscles were atrophied or had never fully developed from lack of use, but all of the chimpanzees were still stronger (in many ways) than any of us humans could ever hope to be.

Jody Before — Jody on the day she arrived at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

I often wonder what it felt like to use those muscles exploring their new sanctuary home. To feel them engage while running and climbing and displaying, and then to feel their strength building over time.