Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Thanks so much, Donna Dinsmore, for choosing to celebrate your special day by sponsoring a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees!
“This is my birthday and I would love to have the chimps celebrate it with me.”
Donna, there are so many ways you could spend today and it means a lot to us that you thought of the chimps! Happy Birthday from all of us here at the sanctuary!
Missy:
Missy’s daughter, Honey B:
Terry:
Gordo:
Rayne and Willy B:
Sisters, Julie and Karen Olson, are long-time friends of the chimpanzees and we’re so happy to get to join in Julie’s celebration of Karen for her birthday!:
“I am sponsoring this day for the chimps in honor of my sister Karen’s birthday. She hasn’t had the best year in many ways. One thing that brings her joy is keeping up with the daily doings of her favorite chimps. She has followed their journey ever since they arrived at the sanctuary. Happy Birthday, Sis, and may the rest of year get better from here on out.”
Thank you so much Julie and Karen for your dedicated friendship and support of our sanctuary family!
Karen, we hope today fills your heart, just as you both help make possible for the hearts of all the chimps and our tiny bovine herd. Happy Birthday from all of us here and all the good thoughts for the year ahead!
Generally speaking, I’d say the sanctuary’s siblings are much the same as most siblings. Laughing one minute, fighting the next, but still sharing a lot of joyful moments together. It’s a delight to watch their relationships grow whether they’ve been together for years or are just getting to know one another after years apart. Regardless of time spent together, it’s particularly endearing to see their shared connections and similarities, both physically and in personality.
(A side note about our resident siblings: Cy and Lucky are full siblings, Dora and Gordo are half-siblings, and Rayne is half-sibling to Lucky, Cy, and Honey B!)
Half-sisters, Rayne and Honey B:
Mave, Rayne and Honey B:
Half-sisters Lucky and Rayne making a Dora sandwich :):
Mave, Honey B, Rayne and Lucky:
Thank you, Cecilia Crow, for sponsoring this lovely day of sanctuary for Angela Erickson!
“Happy Birthday Angela! You are such a kind, caring, loving, giving soul, who lends your time, talents, and generous nature to everyone you encounter. Our county is a better place to live because of you. I can never thank you enough for saving me and my whole world at a time when everything was at its worst. I love you my dear, sweet, kind, funny friend. Happy Birthday!”
Happy Birthday, from all of us here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, Angela! Have a fantastic day! Thanks to you and Cecilia both for adding beauty to all our days with this wonderful gift for the chimpanzees.
Dear, sweet Jody:
Jody, Negra and Annie:
Good friends, Jody and Foxie:
Mave and her Dora:
Dora and Lucky, with Rayne in the background:
Annie and Missy:
Willy B and Cy:
Happy Birthday, June-born friends! June is a particularly special month at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest and it’s full to the brim with birthdays and anniversaries. Cherished celebrations that you make possible and that we celebrate you for in return.
Historically, June has been about Queen Negra and the arrival anniversary of her group to the sanctuary. On June 13, 2008, after over 30 years in biomedical research, Negra, along with her group-mates, Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody and Missy, arrived home. So much hard work went into making their new life possible. It often feels like a spell of abundance and love was cast over the sanctuary that day and thanks to you, our amazing extended chimpanzee family, it has only continued to grow and blossom in so many ways. Ways perhaps not even dreamed of at that time. What *was* known is that June 13th was henceforth going to be celebrated as Negra’s honorary birthday and her and her friends beginning of a second chance at their lives.
Negra is turning 49 this month! Just look at her!
Now, fourteen years later we find ourselves also celebrating not only the first anniversary of welcoming Cy, Rayne, Dora, Lucky, Gordo, and Terry home on June 26th, but the additional birthdays of Dora (who turns 33 on June 6th):
Honey B (who turns 33 on June 11th):
and Terry (who shares a June 13th birthday with Negra and is turning 32)!
Which brings me to the next news reminder that this year we will be celebrating June 13th as “The Trifecta Jubilee.” If you are signed up for our e-newsletter you may recall that the name of the celebration was submitted by supporter Kathleen Corby and chosen as the winner of the naming contest because it reflects the triple celebration of Negra’s birthday, the arrival anniversary of the first group of chimpanzees, and Terry’s birthday. Stay tuned for how you can help celebrate this special day. Not subscribed to our e-news yet? You can do that here!
And I have one more exciting June birthday celebration to share with you all! If you’ve been following the sanctuary for some time, you most likely remember our beloved (though sometimes terrifying) wildish elk friend, Ellie (our name for her before realizing she was more widely known in the community as Buttons). Ellie lives at Woodland Park Zoo now and it’s my understanding that they’ve chosen June 10th to celebrate Ellie/Buttons and her honorary birthday! Click here to read more about her new life and see a short video of her!:
Ellie’s/Buttons’s story is a classic tale of what happens when (despite the best of intentions) a wild animal becomes habituated to humans. Though this story has the rare exception that thanks to a community of professionals and neighbors who love her, the outcome is a happy ending.
As some of you may recall, when Ellie was eventually removed from the community by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists for her and everyone’s safety, attempts to integrate her with wild herds in the area proved unsuccessful. WDFW worked hard to find the best solution for Ellie and thankfully she was eventually accepted into a forever home at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle in March of 2019. We held our hopeful breath that this would be a successful situation for her, but couldn’t help but worry. We’ve checked in on her through visits and communication with her caregivers, but we hadn’t been able to see her since the start of the pandemic.
Much to my delight, I recently had the wonderful opportunity to visit her at the zoo and speak with her caregiver and it makes my heart SING to be able to say that she is not only doing well, she is thriving! She’s adjusted well and finally has a tiny herd to call her own, choosing to spend much of her time with the handsome bull of the herd, Goodwyn, while enjoying bossing around (in typical Ellie-style) the two other females of the group, Willow and Lily (who are Roosevelt elk, while Ellie and Goodwyn are Rocky Mountain elk).
The Living Northwest Trail habitat where they live is beautifully wooded, green and peaceful with plenty of space to be out of view if they choose. But if you know Ellie, part of her will probably always gravitate toward visits with the human herd she spent the first many years of her life interacting with. Her caregivers adore her and while we all would have loved to see her thriving in her natural wild-born life, the truth is that for Ellie, I cannot think of a better place for her to live out her life. She’s in an environment more closely resembling that of the elk-appropriate life she was meant for that still meets her unique needs for well-being, safety, and occasional safe interactions with her human friends.
(Photo credit: John Loughlin/Woodland Park Zoo)
(Photo credit: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo)
We are profoundly thankful to Scott McCorquodale of WDFW and Woodland Park Zoo for going above and beyond to create a solution for her, with extra heartfelt gratitude for her caregivers for loving and caring for her as the special individual she is and providing her with such a wonderful home.
I want to impress that Ellie’s/Button’s story is very special and this is unfortunately not how the story ends for the majority of wild animals who have become too comfortable around humans. I won’t lie, the privilege of unexpectedly sharing our lives with Ellie as she came and went throughout the community over the years will forever be one of the most magical and cherished experiences in my heart. I sincerely love her (even when she was scaring the holy heck out of us). But I’d trade it all without hesitation if she could have lived the wild life she was intended to. Because that was her right and in her best interest.
I have a heart full of wonder and reverence for the invaluable gift that sharing our lives with wild animals and their spaces is and because of Ellie (and the chimpanzees) a deepened respect for how incredibly important it is to do everything we can to keep wildlife wild and in their rightful lives. And when needed, to utilize the help of licensed wildlife rehabilitators before that small window of opportunity for the animal closes. Ellie, just like every animal, wild or otherwise, is a special and unique individual. Won’t it be incredible if her story continues to inspire and create different outcomes for other wild animals who find themselves in similar situations?
Jamie and Ellie/Buttons:
Happiest of birthdays to beloved Negra, Dora, Ellie/Buttons, Honey B, Terry and you, our wonderful human friends!!
Many thanks to Jo Brodahl for so kindly sponsoring a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees and Nancy!
“Happy Birthday to my friend Nancy D. May your day be spent swaggering like Dora, scooting like Lucky and hopping like Gordo while playing like Honey B and Rayne!! Pant-hoots to you.”
For anyone who missed the aforementioned “swaggering, scooting, hopping and playing”, or if you just need to watch it for the 99th time like all of us, click here to revisit Mave’s amazing birthday celebration!
Happy happy day to you, Nancy! We hope it’s been the best one yet!
Dora and Honey B:
Honey B:
Dora:
Lucky:
Gordo:
Rayne:
Thank you so much to Melissa Marcus for sponsoring a day of sanctuary in memory of her mother, Arlen Bishop!
“In memory of my beloved mother, who loved all animals and taught me to love all of them, too.”
Melissa, it means so much that you chose to share your mother and her memory with all of us and the chimpanzees, thank you! What an incredible legacy she gave you. We’re sending you all the good thoughts today and hope you feel some of the comfort and joy you’ve helped bring to the chimps.
Beautiful, adventurous, endearing Annie:
Annie and her beloved bestie, Missy:
We’re so fortunate to have multiple days of sanctuary being sponsored today by friends of the chimpanzees!
To start things off we are celebrating the Marvelous Miss Mave and her 33rd birthday! Many thanks to Melissa Reed for honoring Mave and helping to bring even more hope, joy and possibility to her and her friends’ lives. We really appreciate you thinking of Mave, Melissa!
“Every time I look over at my calendar this month, that beautiful gal is looking right back at me! Happiest of Birthdays!”
Mave (along with Honey B and Willy B) have called Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest home for close to three years now and if you’ve followed the blog during that time you’ve most likely seen us waxing poetic and singing her praises every chance we get. Mave seems to be our resident social butterfly when most needed and we’re endlessly in awe of, and grateful for, her peace-keeping skills and kind and loving heart toward her fellow chimps. She is such a special person and we’re so honored to get to celebrate her!
Happy Birthday, Mave! We love you so!
Of course, be sure to tune in later today to join in her celebration and another sponsor a day in her honor!
