Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Katelyn

Fall fashions

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Jamie has a love for occasionally wearing troll scarves and it seemed like every time we saw her today she was modeling a different one. Of course, as you are probably aware if you’ve been following us for long, we certainly don’t advocate chimpanzees (or any other wild animal) wearing human clothing. Prior to her three decades being used in biomedical research, Jamie spent the first nine years of her life living in a human home with a trainer, sadly being used in entertainment. It makes sense that some of the perhaps more human-oriented enrichment we provide the chimpanzees may be familiar or interesting to her. But that’s exactly the difference. The enrichment we provide the chimpanzees is just that, enrichment for them to choose to engage with when and how they find interesting, including the choice not to engage with it at all.

Beautiful and creative, we couldn’t love the unique and kaleidoscopic individual she is more. And I’m pretty sure troll scarves will be the next fashion trend, so just remember you heard it from Jamie first:

Napping in style:

The luncheon troll scarf:

From earlier this summer:

Happy Birthday, Peter!

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Today was sponsored for Peter in honor of his birthday!

“As a docent at the Oakland Zoo, Peter’s favorite animals are the chimpanzees. In his honor, we’re pleased to donate to Chimpanzee Sanctuary NW. Love Kelly, Mike, Katie and Michael <3”

Kelly, Mike, Katie, and Michael, thank you so much for thinking of the chimpanzees as you celebrate Peter today! We truly appreciate it!

Happy Birthday, Peter! All of us at CSNW hope you have a fantastic day and many thanks for the difference you help make in the lives of so many chimpanzees! They really are incredible people. 🙂

Jamie:

Missy:

Honey B:

Jody and Burrito (foreground) and Negra and Annie (background):

Be like Annie

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Well folks, the computer in the chimp house has been a beast possessed all the day long. You know, that pinwheel of death just spinning and spinning despite all our best efforts. So I’ve relocated to another computer and alas, the internet is a bit wonky. Sometimes, that’s life in the country. So I apologize for the short post, but maybe it’s an opportunity for me to be like Annie, call it a day, put my legs in the air and just make bird noises in complete contentment.

For those of you that aren’t familiar, when Annie is most content, she plops down on her back, puts her feet up and makes whistling sounds through her hands, or as we call it, the Annie-bird. She only does this when she is completely at ease and happy so it’s the most welcome sound to hear drifting through the chimp house. We rarely capture these on video, but I found a post from some years ago that gives you an idea of the Annie birdsong.

We could all use a little Annie song in our lives.

Happy Birthday, Donna and Paula!

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Donna Haggarty-Robbins sponsored today in honor of a double celebration with this really lovely message:

“Today is my sister Paula’s (Andrews) birthday and mine! I can’t think of a better way to celebrate our birthdays (4 years apart) than to support the wonderful work you all are doing at Chimpanzee Sanctuary NW. These retired and rescued medical research chimps deserve all the loving care the dedicated Sanctuary staff provides them, year round.”

Happiest of birthdays to you both, Donna and Paula! Thank you so much for your generous support and kind words. We’re so grateful for the love and abundance that surrounds the chimpanzees and their home. All of us hope you have a beautiful day!

Annie and Missy:

Jamie and Foxie:

Burrito and Jody:

Honey B and Mave:

Summer’s last sigh

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The end of summer. How can it be? I am an autumn person through and through. If there were nine months of autumn and one month each of winter, spring, and summer I would be pretty happy with that. But this year, no one I know, myself included, feels ready to let summer go.

Given the many days of Burrito’s recovery (now thankfully healed and returned to his family), followed by the many days of hazardous, smoke-filled air (now thankfully cleared away), we are all beside ourselves with gratitude at the sense of ease, joy and freedom we’ve been having this week. The chimpanzees’ have continued to enjoy lunch forages on Young’s Hill and we’ve all been basking in the final gifts of summer, each of us sighing along with summer’s last breath:

Jody holds her reign as “Farmer Jo”:

Negra enjoying her lunch with a view:

Foxie:

Burrito:

Jamie:

Annie:

Diana mentioned on Saturday how we’ve been anxiously awaiting the chimpanzees’ grapes to ripen and have finally been able to harvest these beauties. Can you believe these gorgeous things?!

I went out to harvest some for dinner, but Annie, Jody and Burrito insisted they should be served immediately, garden to belly:

Everyone squeezed (politely, somehow) into the raceway (the chute that gives the chimpanzees access to Young’s Hill from the greenhouse) and lined up for their serving. Bunches of grapes aren’t the easiest things to serve through the caging so apologies for all the caging shots. But, their faces! A fleeting summertime gift.

Jo!! My favorite photo, look at her eyes! 🙂

Foxie:

Burrito’s tactic is just shoveling them in as fast as he can, naturally:

Missy and her sweet little runner’s legs:

(And fiddlesticks, I just realized that my photo of sweet Annie with her grape cluster didn’t take, and Negra chose to stay in her nest, though she did receive a few grapes via delivery).

Meanwhile, I could hear Willy B blowing raspberries from the other side of the grapevines, in the chute, where he and Honey B were anxiously waiting for their serving:

Honey B:

In the past couple of days that we’ve been harvesting the grapes we’ve learned that Mave in particular LOVES them. She chose to wait inside for hers and when I rounded the corner with them her hair was standing on end in sheer excitement (pilo-erect) making her glorious fluffy self even floofier! Here she is gazing adoringly at them:

Somehow the grape feast, being a hot ticket event, went off without a hitch. For the most part that is. Turns out the seven were not in a sharing mood and had a lot to say about the three partaking in the feast as well. That’s alright. I don’t like sharing, say, my cookies, so I get it. 😉

A bonus photo of Jamie enjoying her beloved boot book in her nest:

It’s been such a beautiful day. It’s nearly dark already and as I type this I hear geese flying overhead and the raspberry patch is a chorus of frog song – I suspect from the little guys I rescued and put in there earlier today. Betwixt and between. Wherever are you, and whichever season you happen to be saying farewell to in your part of the world in welcome of the next, I hope there’s beauty there. I’m convinced it’s there for all of us in one form or another. We just have to keep an eye and an ear out.

Smoky day games

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Much like the entire west coast, the air at the sanctuary has continued to range between very unhealthy to hazardous the last few days.

So we did our best to find some extra enrichment activities to keep everyone busy with their extra indoor time. For Mave, Honey B, and Willy B, this turned out to be peanut butter filled hanging frisbee puzzles. These are still relatively new to the three and they love them!

Mave:

Willy B:

Honey B (apologies for these pixelated photos, but she’s cute!):

Like everything Honey B does, she does it with passion. Her face and cheeks are covered in peanut butter. 🙂

In between hanging frisbees, the three made their own enrichment by supervising the construction workers, as demonstrated by Willy B:

The construction crew continues to amaze us with their hard work and progress. They’re incredible – pandemic, brutal heatwaves, wildfire smoke, it doesn’t matter, they are out there! And it looks entirely different every day. Things are moving right along:

Over on the other side, Burrito (left) enjoyed a lunch date with sweet Jody (right), who ended up spending the entire afternoon with him. Granted, she was also enjoying her “alone time” by building a huge nest and resting peacefully while Burrito played with his human caregivers. But believe me, no one provides better care to a chimpanzee, than another chimpanzee. And caregiver Jody is about the best you could hope for:

As the day ended we caught a few brief glimpses of blue sky with birds circling high again. It felt like a deep breath, mentally and emotionally at least. We can see the neighbors’ homes on the hills above us again. We are hoping these are signs that the smoke is beginning to break up and lessen a bit. That said, we are currently some of the fortunate few who aren’t currently threatened by wildfires. And while there are no words adequate for such experiences, please know our thoughts are constantly with all of you who are navigating the profound worry, fear and devastating loss they are bringing. From our hearts, we wish for your safety, well-being and recovery.

Happy Birthday, Tina!

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Tina Dilts sponsored a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees as a way to celebrate her birthday!

“I could not think of a better way to celebrate my birthday than pant-hooting and blowing raspberries with the Cle Elum gang!”

Happy Birthday, Tina! Thank you so much for thinking of the chimpanzees and generously sharing your own special day with them! We definitely recommend pant-hooting to celebrate and blowing raspberries to get everything you want. And you can always throw in Negra’s patented hand-claps for a little something extra! 🙂 We hope you have a wonderful day!

Burrito:

Annie blowing raspberries:

Negra:

Honey B: