Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Kelsi

We Made it!

by

Hooray, we made it to the weekend! I for one am exhausted this week, between the chimp’s Thanksgiving and the human’s we are all wiped. I was asked a lot this week what I am grateful for. So I thought I would share a few things that I am especially grateful for.

1. I am grateful for our expansion to be able to take in more chimps. It has been an extraordinary experience to get to know these six incredible chimpanzees!

2. I am thankful for the chimp’s health. This pandemic has been overwhelming and very stressful. The lengths that we go to protect these chimps are obviously working and we are so fortunate to have such a dedicated group of people to help protect them.

3. I am forever and always grateful to be able to care for these sixteen remarkable chimpanzees. To help provide a safe and enriching life for them is a true honor.

4. This year I was extremely thankful to be surrounded by the people that I loved. So many of us were not able to do that last year, which makes this year even more special!

Enough mushy stuff, let’s look at some photos! I was able to capture some photos over the last week. Not all the photos make it to the blog, fit the theme, or sometimes we capture a moment throughout the week!

I think this photo perfectly captures Jamie. She is beautiful, extremely intelligent, funny, always thinking, and has moments of letting her guard down.

This photo of Burrito was taken last Friday when it had just snowed. So, of course Burrito’s mouth is full of snow!

Negra sleeping peacefully in her nest.

Sleepy Rayne napping in the front rooms.

Willy B laying down watching his soaps having a nice afternoon!

Cy, I mean look at this guy!

Cy and I were playing chase the other day, we had to take a break and play with the foot box a little!

Gordo stopped to check himself out through the camera.

Her firehose is only fit for a queen. Let us all hail Queen Lucky!

All About the Girls and Cardboard

by

Sometimes the best enrichment is the most simple enrichment. For example, all the chimps love boxes whether it’s to help build a nest, use as a tool to display with, or just play with. As you will see in the photos below and video above playing seemed to be the theme today!

As we continue on with our intro week we decided to try an all girl group again. Honey B, Mave, Rayne, and Lucky all volunteered to be a part of it today. We had tried this group before and their behaviors weren’t positive enough to open the door. But it has been a while and they all have done other introductions with each other so we thought we would give it another go! They did amazing, so good that they stayed with each other all afternoon. Rayne was just a jokester the whole time. At one point she was wrestling all three ladies! Honey B hasn’t had a person in her group to match her energy in a long time, Honey B and Rayne are a perfect match! Watching these four chimpanzees grow and develop friendships has been a true honor.

Now for box photos!

Gordo in a box:

Gordo having pomegranates in his box:

Lucky on a bench in a box:

A bonus photo of the handsome Cy:

And of course we could never forget that today is Honey Cow’s 14th birthday! She enjoyed the warm sunshine on a brisk day, fresh hay with her friends, and some tasty cob that Betsy swore was for her ;).

Getting to know Honey over the past few years has been a privilege. She is a fierce and loyal friend, self-assured, she can be sweet, and she is not afraid to tell you to go away! Cheers to the amazing Honey.

Jamie’s the Coolest!

by

Throughout the day we have moments where we are like, “Jamie is the coolest”. I think I write a blog every year about how much I admire her. She just isn’t afraid to be herself. She says what she wants, does what she wants, and means it whether you like her answer or not! I think we all have to admit that is pretty freakin’ cool. What I love about Jamie is that she has so many layers. She is scary, she can tend to be bossy, but she is also silly and funny. This afternoon as I was trying to find blog material and I found Jamie demanding something very specific. I couldn’t find the exact thing she was looking for until I found her new star cowboy boots. On the other side of the building JB and a helpful volunteer are putting a roof on green house two and three, so she got a bit distracted and went to the window to watch. I went around the building to the window where she was looking out. She let me take these amazing pictures of her and then she ran out onto the Hill very playfully. Her intentions were not to walk but to get a better look at the project going on, Willy B in the chute, and of course to demand me to give her whatever grapes were still left!

This was the lineup for Jamie, including Chad’s cleaning boots that I was sporting for her.

These were the boots she was looking for!

View from the top of the green house. This was the project Jamie was managing from the window.

Jamie, isn’t she amazing!

The Holdouts and Foot Boxes

by

On any given day you can bet that we are cleaning around Cy and Lucky. These two are known holdouts and when they decide to stay somewhere they settle in for the long haul. Pretty much if they decided to stay in the front rooms you have no luck in cleaning the front rooms. Though this may throw a wrench in our schedule, they are great company!

Cy reading his magazine in front room 6 while we clean front room 5 and the chute.

Lucky taking a little snooze next to Cy.

Today we also put a “Foot Box” in front room 5 just like on the other side of the building. The purpose of the foot box is so that the chimps can present a hand or foot and we can get a x-ray. Obviously the foot box is new and it has to go through a rigorous inspection process by the chimps. I would say it passes their inspection standards as you will see in the video above.

Rayne and Gordo looking in.

Terry taking a little peek!

Bonus!

Missy, Jody, and Burrito have a very nice grooming session.

Missy and Annie grooming themselves.

Let the Countdown Begin!

by

Eleven more sleeps until Jamieween. Though this blog isn’t really about Jamie, the Jamieween countdown has begun! As many of you may know or even agree, Jamieween is known as a staff and volunteer favorite for chimp celebrations! Not only do we get to celebrate Jamie and all her amazing-ness, but there is always an amusing pumpkin heist too! Not to mention Halloween is some of the staff’s favorite holiday. The gifts for Jamieween have been rolling in and we could not be more grateful. This is just a handful of items for Jamie’s haunting celebration! Personally, I can’t wait for Jamie to get her anatomy apron.

I don’t have much content for today because it was rather uneventful and eerily quiet today. So quiet that I had to check and make sure there were chimps in the building! But I do have lots of photos of Cy and Rayne.

I mean come on! How handsome is he?

Rayne and Cy sharing a bench.

Rayne is the absolute best! She is the type of person that when you see her she instantly warms your heart.

Rayne enjoying some rose hips.

I have a few extra photos to share with you all, as well.

Same bench, same sitting position, can you tell these two are related?

Honey B enjoying a leek in the green house.

Burrito and the Giant Kong

by

Giant kongs are a newer food puzzle and Burrito loves them. We have found him bouncing on the enormous kongs, throwing the kongs, and dragging them behind him. Finally, we have some videos as proof. Though this video doesn’t have any sound, I actually was laughing out loud, usually I can suppress it! However, Burrito can come up with some of the most ridiculously fun games and this was definitely one for the books. If you needed a laugh, something to warm you from the inside out, or just something totally pure of joy this is the video from you today. Burrito is down right funny and we all need a friend like Burrito.

We also did some introductions today. With no surprise Cy and Willy B volunteered, but we were able to get a Gordo to join us, which was a surprise! And of course little miss Honey B popped in too. It took a long time for everyone to settle down at the mesh, eventually things settled and the door was able to be opened, everyone did well! Though, Gordo and Willy B might need some time alone, because Willy B and Cy have a bromance that no one can come between.

Also Jamieween is right around the corner. We just added some new boots for Jamie’s Birthday on the wish-list!