Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Katelyn

In honor of Paulette’s Valentine, Burrito!

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Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!!

Incredible friend of the sanctuary, Paulette Wrisley, honors each and every resident who calls Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest home by sponsoring a day of sanctuary in their honor on their birthdays. But this fella, her Chimpanzee Pal, holds an extra special place in her heart.

“In honor of My True Love Valentine… Burrito! Burrito, will you be my Valentine?”

Burrito is beloved. With his heaps and oodles of undeniable charm, we get it! Burrito’s endearing, sweet, wild-guy ways are enough to make all our hearts sing (or jump, because sometimes he loves to scare the bejebus out of his unsuspecting caregivers by doing things like hitting the caging like a freight train when we walk past). Frankly, it’s amazing we get much done at all during the day. Burrito is an endless source of joy, laughter, workout routines (whether you want them or not) and shenanigans. An endless reminder of resiliency, courage and what it means to live one’s life to the fullest in every minute of every day. A profound, exhilarating reflection of what love, and people coming together, makes possible. Not only for someone else, but for our own hearts.

Paulette, thank you for always holding this chimpanzee guy in your heart (along with his 19 friends and neighbors)! And thanks for allowing us all to start today with our hearts filled with Burrito love.

Here’s hoping today is filled with some bit of beauty, hope, kindness, silly shenanigans, food squeaks or just any ol’ thing that makes your heart happy. Burrito wouldn’t have it any other way.

Be sure to tune in later today to see how the chimpanzees’ Valentine’s celebration goes! From our hearts to yours, thank you, Paulette, and each of you, for being here!

Happy Birthday, Meg!

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Many thanks to Cynthia Cavalle for sponsoring a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees in honor of your daughter, Meg! This is such a lovely message:

“Happy Birthday to my generous and compassionate daughter, Meg Casey, whose heart is full of love for all animals. Your volunteer work is tireless—collecting and distributing donated pet food, cleaning up public areas and continued advocacy for animal rights. Your work as a high school teacher and tutor reflects your creativity and respect for students. You help them to recognize their strengths and how to create goals for individual success. I know you like simple celebrations and a day of bird watching in Skagit Valley will be a happy one for you! Of course the day will end, as usual, with sharing the daily blog where we’re sure to get laughs, maybe some tears and always a smile from the amazing chimps! Thank you, Meg, for sharing your love, your support and your new ideas and I can’t wait to see what happens next! Love you! Mom”

Happy Birthday, Meg! We’re so happy the chimps can share in the celebration of your special day with you! While the chimps lift all our hearts, it can’t go without saying that hearing of all the good that humans like yourself are sharing with others lifts our hearts immensely as well.

Wishing a beautiful day to you both, Meg and Cynthia!

Missy and Annie:

Foxie, Strawberry Shortcake and Jody:

Lucky, Dora and Rayne:

Cy:

Honey B and Mave:

Happy Birthday, Stanley!

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Many thanks to our long-time friend of the sanctuary, Jamie Reagin, for sponsoring this special day of sanctuary in honor of her father, Stanley Friedman, for his 91st birthday!

Happy Birthday, Stanley!! We’re so happy to share in your celebration with you! We hope it’s a wonderful day!

Terry:

Burrito:

Cy:

Jamie and Burrito:

Honey B:

Mave:

Happy Birthday, Nutmeg!

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Nutmeg Steer is turning 7 today! Thank you so much, Paulette Wrisley, for sponsoring a day of sanctuary in honor of this fella’s special day!

It’s hard to believe this huge sweet guy and his enviable red curls are 7 years old today! I wonder if his mama, Betsy, thinks the same thing. Though it appears that in her devoted eyes he will always be her tiny boy calf who used to fit between her front legs. And I don’t think Nutmeg would want it any other way.

We’re so grateful that Nutmeg and his tiny herd are allowed to live a life they deserve in which they are loved and respected as the individuals they are. It’s a unique thing for bovines, and to each of you who help make this possible our hearts are full of thanks.

Nutmeg’s celebration with his family will certainly involve food, as of late rare, but hopeful appearances from the warm winter sun and patches of pasture beneath the melting snow, and no doubt the doting of his beloved mama, Betsy. And perhaps, if accepted, scritches from the humans (after they hand over the food, of course). All in all, a very good celebration for any one of us, I’d say. I’d also say that at a steer’s birthday party, anything can happen, so be sure to tune in later today to find out. 🙂

Happy Birthday, Nutmeg!!

Betsy, Nutmeg, Honey and Meredith:

Betsy and Nutmeg:

Happy Birthday, Ariel!

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We’re so lucky to have a second lovely Sponsor a Day today! Many thanks to Colleen Andrews, who is celebrating her sister, Ariel, on her birthday!

“In honor of my wonderful, kind and loving sister Ariel on her birthday. She has worked tirelessly in an Emergency Room hospital during Covid and now works in palliative care at a hospital sharing her knowledge, compassion and wisdom to patients who will be passing to the other side. I know how very lucky these people and their families are to have her advocating for them. She, like all the caregivers at CSNW give so much of themselves to our world. Because of all of you, my faith in humanity soars! Happy Birthday Sis! Love you.”

Colleen, thank you so much for choosing to celebrate Ariel this way and share both your kind hearts with the chimps and the bovines!

Happy Birthday, Ariel! Thank you for the dedicated care, dignity and comfort you share with so many and the difference you make in so many lives. Even, and especially, for the differences which you may never be aware of. And thanks for helping to make so much possible in the lives of all those who call the sanctuary home. Have a beautiful day of celebration! It lifts our hearts knowing about you!

Dora and Rayne:

Jamie swaddled in her nest:

Gordo:

Annie and Missy:

In honor of (human) Jody!

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Our very own staff caregiver, Chad, graciously sponsored a day of sanctuary for his chimpanzee and bovine friends in honor of his mother, Jody, for her birthday and retirement!

“Mother/Mom/Mommy/Mumsie dearest, I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday and to celebrate your full week of retirement! I am not only so happy for your decades of dedication to your job and company, but also so very proud of you! You worked tirelessly and endlessly, all the while raising three children. Two ‘normal’ and one with wild and crazy dreams and ambitions. Yet regardless of how wild and crazy those dreams and ambitions were, you always, without a shroud of hesitation, supported those dreams. And here I am. Doing what I have always dreamed of doing. I don’t think I would be here without your undying support. Though geography separates us, your love always makes us feel as if we were in the same room. I hope you have an amazing birthday and a wonderful life in retirement!”

(Human) Jody and (chimpanzee) Jody have an awful lot in common when it comes to being there for their family and friends it seems. How very lucky their loved ones are.

Happy Birthday and congratulations on your retirement, Jody!! All of us here at the sanctuary send all the good thoughts for today, and for a proper Jody-style retirement full of days surrounded by loved ones, joy, celebration, adventure, ease, and just doing whatever makes your heart sing.

Burrito and Jody:

Jody leading a patrol around Young’s Hill, with her friends, Missy, Annie, Burrito and Foxie following:

Betsy grooming her son, Nutmeg:

This guy:

Jody and Foxie:

The Queen of Lounging:

Burrito and his beloved buddy and caregiver, Chad:

The celebrations and light of February

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Let me first begin by wishing Happy Birthday to all our February celebrating friends!

It feels like a big month for some reason. Waking up to February and suddenly finding ourselves halfway through winter and spring (or summer and autumn, as the case may be). Maybe the tiniest bit of change feels more pronounced right now. Chimpanzees and cattle (and humans!) basking in the first sighting of the sun in these mountains in a good long while, the last full magical month of winter, the cartwheel of life a partial turn closer to spring. The rich cultural heritage and contributions celebrated with Black History Month, the new lunar year welcoming the Year of the Tiger, and the kaleidoscopic wonder and creativity of Carnival season in full swing. Valentine’s Day (and another chimp house party!) on the horizon. My orchids wildly blooming. 🙂 Who knows? So many opportunities for our hearts to beat right along with whatever stirs and inspires them.

So how apropos that all of you celebrating a birthday in this big month get to share it with this big guy, Nutmeg Steer, who is turning 7 years old on February 10th! This wonderful, huge, currently very floofy guy, who loves his mama, Betsy, so very much (and very much vice versa). He might be at least twice her size (see below), but he is still, and forever, her baby cow. Well, baby steer.

This tiny herd brings an awful lot of joy to our days at the sanctuary as we watch them going about their bovine business. And many thanks to all of you, including the Bovine Buddies, who make such a life possible for this sweet family. It isn’t one many bovines get to experience and we are so grateful to you. Be sure to tune in for Nutmeg’s celebration on the 10th!

Honey, Betsy, Nutmeg and Meredith:

Whomever, whatever, and however you choose to celebrate this month, or not, I dare you to do so by sporting something akin to the enviable Nutmeg coif:

From all of us here at the sanctuary, we hope your hearts and minds are stirred by whatever little (or big) lift of inspiration or beauty they might need or come across this month. Be it a winter day, a warm patch of sun, a wild celebration, or all the wonder you make possible in the lives of sixteen chimpanzees and four bovines who call a tiny, but every growing Washington sanctuary, home.

Jody:

Honey B (Mave in the background):

Dora:

And please enjoy these photos of some of the beautiful chimp people in the light-filled chimp house today which were captured by Chad!

Jody:

Negra with that wonderful relaxed lip:

Sweet Lucky enjoying the heights of her group’s sunny greenhouse du jour:

Gordo, below, mid-hoot:

Willy B, across the way, surrounded by sunlight:

Honey B enjoying a kale forage: