Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Kelsi

Nonstop Christmas Fun!

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Well, what an amazing Christmas it has been! The chimps are still discovering new enrichment every day, like Foxie with the Anna doll from Frozen. While others, like Burrito, are still having fun with items they received before the big Christmas party. Words cannot express our gratitude for all of our supporters, we would not be able to do any of this without you!

This morning Cy’s group received access to the Chute and to say Burrito’s group were excited would be an understatement! The seven were all lined up by the window hooting and hollering, but Burrito especially took great interest! He almost missed breakfast! It had been a little while since the group of nine had received access to the Chute, because it has been so cold at the sanctuary.

I suppose I will share with you all a condensed story about the chaos that unfolded last week! We received quite a bit of snow in the past couple of weeks and it also became extremely cold, getting as cold as -5 degrees. So cold that last Wednesday our well water became frozen.  Our co-directors J.B. and Diana had left for a quick and very deserved trip to go see family over the holiday, however with all these winter storms their flight back got canceled. We went to the store and grabbed lots of water to use for cleaning and for drinking water, but we had to use the water sparingly because we had a few more days of  this extremely cold weather. Thankfully, all of this did not affect the chimps and they were none the wiser- we made sure that they had plenty of water, food, clean blankets, and most importantly a clean enclosure! We had a Christmas miracle because on Christmas eve it finally warmed up and the water started to work again! Finally, we have caught up on laundry and mostly decompressed from the chaos that has ensued. We are sooooo grateful to have J.B. and Diana back safely and that the water is flowing again!

Burrito watching his neighbors:

Cy enjoying some green beans:

Sweet Rayne:

On the Eighth Day of Christmas…

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On the eighth day of Christmas, the chimps received cozy blankets. I think you all can guess who put these blankets to good use!

Special thank you to:

CeeCee M. for bidding on cozy fleece blankets for the chimps!

And thank you to everyone who has donated blankets to us over the holiday!

It’s Negra, of course:

Negra in her morning nest. She greeted me and then went back to sleep :).

To Shift or Not to Shift

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Well, if you read the title you might be wondering, who didn’t shift? Or did they eventually shift? To answer your questions, yes and yes! This morning as caregiver Sofia and I were at the home-stretch of cleaning, we just needed to do the four front rooms. However, as I went to shift Jody decided she might want to stay in front room 2 and take a nap. Burrito being the gentleman that he is, did not want Jody to be alone, so he joined her on the bench. I think we all know that Burrito can’t stay still for very long, so Jody indulged him in a very lazy game of toe and ear grab. It was very sweet to watch them gently play and laugh with each other, so we shifted around them and cleaned all the other rooms. Once we were done cleaning the other rooms we gave them back access to the other front rooms, but it still didn’t look likely we would be getting that room anytime soon. I left for a few minutes and when I came back to check on them they had taken their game to the ground in front room 3. So long story short Jody and Bubba played a very sweet game and Sofia and I got to clean everything eventually!

Today is Wish List Wednesday! Today we wanted to highlight Jamie’s current favorite book (her stash is getting low):

This morning Burrito had a nice play session with Annie too:

Burrito:

Jody:

Burrito with Jody’s toes:

Willy B grooming himself:

Winter is Here to Stay

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Today was a quiet snowy day at the chimp house. The humans were busy shoveling snow and cleaning, while the chimps ate snow and napped in their cozy nest! Everyone was so content grooming or napping that it was hard to capture photos of them. So please enjoy these photos of some cozy chimps I was able to capture. Speaking of cozy, today is the last day of our Comfort & Joy auction! The auction will be wrapping up at 6 pm PT so make sure to check on your bids or bid one last person out! We will be starting to slowly add Christmas gifts for the chimps on our wish-list soon, so be on the look out!

We got a little bit of snow last night and this morning…

Burrito sat still long enough to snap these photos:


The ever so handsome Cy:

Neggie’s silhouette eating snow:

Negra can’t wait for all of her new blankets from the Comfort & Joy auction!

Jamie getting a little shut eye:

Jamie nesting, Neggie style (blanket over head):

Mave in the middle of a big grooming party in the green house:

Burrito’s Sense of Humor

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Burrito is a funny guy! He is always making us laugh, but from time to time his group doesn’t always think he is so funny. For example, in this video Burrito may or may not have gotten a little too wild for Foxie’s taste!

As you can see, Burrito is having so much fun playing with the giant stuffed bear. Make sure to check out the Comfort & Joy auction! There are a lot of great Squishmallows I know Burrito would love!

Please enjoy this silly video and some bonus photos!

The rare close up of Missy:

Beautiful Negra:

Jamie eating snow:

A series of Foxie photos:

 

What’s in Your Pocket?

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I wanted to share a cute quick story from yesterday and today, which fits perfectly with our Comfort & Joy, the Quid Pro Throw online auction theme! Yesterday, we noticed at all points of the day Annie was carrying one particular blanket in her pelvic pocket all day. I was on the other side of the building cleaning most of the day, but at any point I saw Annie, she had this blanket in her pocket. I was finally able to snap a few pictures at the end of the evening. I asked Chad, who was lead in Annie’s side and he said he observed her with it a lot too! When Annie came to lunch today she had a new blanket in her pelvic pocket that she then proceeded to carry around for the day. I can only assume that the blankets Annie carried around seemed to bring her some sort of comfort, but we can never really say for sure.

The auction is going on now! You can bid on items for the chimps or yourself. Don’t miss out on all the fun, but don’t out bid me ;)!

Annie enjoying her evening popsicle with her blanket in tote:

Annie at lunch today eating avocado and holding a blanket in her pelvic pocket:

 

Five Simple Rules to Becoming Mora

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The thing about Dora is that everyone loves her! If you had told us that she would be the popular girl, I think we all would have been shocked. But it’s hard work being popular, we don’t know how Dora does it. She doesn’t seem to get a lot of alone time, but Dora also doesn’t seem to mind all that much. Especially when it comes to Mave. Again, if we were making predictions of friendships going into integrating this group of 9, my money would not have been on Mave and Dora. But that is the thing about chimps, they are always surprising us! And this was one of the best surprise I think we all didn’t know we needed. It has been so sweet to watch Dora and Mave’s friendship blossom. They truly care for one another and enjoy their time together, which is how the power couple of Mora became. However, there are rules to Mora:

1. Groom or spend quality time as often as possible

2. Three can be a crowd, but not all the time.

*** Rules 3 and 5 are very important and can be repeated or enforced multiple times throughout the day!***

3. No, and I repeat no, more than one arms length apart from each other. If Dora or Mave are to far apart, adjustments must be make quickly!

4. Always try a little bit of each others food. Sharing is caring you know!

5. It is important for any relationship to hug or hold hands as much as possible. The more engulfed the hug is the better!