Jamie loves to watch her caregivers model boots for her. Sometimes this process lasts ten or fifteen minutes. Jamie is by no means a passive audience – she lets us know which boot she wants us to put on which foot, and she makes sure we keep the fashion show moving at a steady clip.
Animal Welfare
Chimps: 7 – Humans: 0
Last night, while the chimpanzees were all inside enjoying their sparkling cider for New Year’s Eve, I ran out to close the hill for the evening. With well below freezing temperatures, the sky growing dark, and Jamie inside, I assumed everyone was in for the evening. And then I saw movement out of the corner of my eye that took my brain a minute to compute. Low and behold Foxie had declined the New Year’s Eve festivities and chose to ring in the new year by having an adventure and foraging for snow treats!
Much to Jody’s horror…
Jody is such a good friend and patiently waited for Foxie, even venturing up the icy path to collect her at one point. Foxie wasn’t ready to come inside yet and sweet Jody headed back to wait for her at the entry to the greenhouse, slipping and sliding her way back down the path. Foxie stayed out quite awhile, seemingly watching the surrounding skies light up with the sunset and enjoying her time. Much to Jo’s relief, Foxie eventually made her way back, collecting several snow treats along the way and then she and Jody raced into the warm chimp house together. We all celebrate in our own way.
Earlier in the day, I was showing Jamie my winter boots with the YakTrax on. As one might imagine, winter shoewear is pretty exciting for Jamie. As we sat together Jamie kept gesturing, unsatisfied with the usual winter boots and Yakthax grooming, or even with me wearing her boots. It took me several minutes to realize she wanted to see the YakTrax on HER boots. Of course she did! She was so excited! Once she had a good visual of them she asked for her boots (thankfully understanding she couldn’t have the Yaktrax with them) and happily retreated to her nest with them.
Here she is sound asleep, her foot in one of her favorite new Christmas boots.
As for today, Kelsi and I arrived bright and early this first morning of 2018, arms full of goods for the chimps’ New Year’s Day celebration. But the chimps made it very clear from the start that today, we were doing things differently. Specifically, we were doing things Missy-style! All. Day. Long. During the winter, Missy is a bit infamous for choosing not to shift during the daily routine, meaning that she will sometimes choose not to leave an area so that we can go in and clean. So the humans adjust their routine or just wait it out.
In order to set up the party we needed access to the playroom, but it’s cozy, light and spacious in there and no one else was particularly interested in leaving that area either. And that’s great, it’s an example of the chimps getting to choose how their day goes. But what is a little more unique is that they’ve been choosing not to shift out of any area today! Bribes of gum, nuts, and even tiny tomatoes for Missy haven’t even swayed them! We were finally able to begin cleaning at precisely the time we normally finish the entire chimp house. So the human party plans were put out in increments or not at all. But the chimps seemed perfectly content with doing things their way and that’s what’s most important.
Jamie enjoying sparkling cider:
The chimps still weren’t interested in shifting out of the playroom for dinner in our last attempt to set up the party forage so instead enjoyed a full service dinner of black-eyed peas with cherry tomatoes, kale, baked onions and baked pears for dinner. To heck with spot cleaning. Maybe they thought since we had JUST cleaned, that was good enough. So we doled out extra blankets in the food chutes and switched up evening enrichment so we could pass it out.
As I write this, the chimps are hooting and hollering (led by ringleader, Missy) seemingly just for the heck of it. I like to think they are celebrating another year of freedom of having choices and freedom to make those choices as they deem fit. Freedom to call the shots in their own home. Freedom to change their minds. Freedom to be chimps. And really, freedom just to be. I think that’s what we all want to be able to celebrate.
Happy New Year everyone!
Today is dedicated to the chimps & those who love them!
Kery and Terran, who also sponsored yesterday, spread the love over to today too.
Here is there message for the first day of 2018:
Here’s to NEW and EXCITING things to come! All the best in 2018!!! Hoots to all of YOU! Kery & Terran
Hopefully, you’ve all seen our State of the Sanctuary video. Just in case you haven’t, it’s posted at the end of this blog post.
As you’ll learn in the video, together, we’ll be working on lots of new and exciting things to come.
We so appreciate the chimpanzees, who provide inspiration every day, and everyone who loves them, including Kery and Terran!
All is calm, and today is sponsored by Kery & Terran
Sanctuary friends Kery and Terran sponsored today, New Year’s Eve Day, with this lovely message:
“For the Chimps, the staff and the volunteers of CSNW. All is calm, all is bright. Wishing you much love and joy during this holiday season! Love & Gratitude, Kery & Terran”
We’re wishing you the same!
Here are some calm and bright moments with the chimpanzees from this year:
Jamie in her tunnel hideout:
Negra sleeping while wrapped in a red blanket:
Burrito and Missy grooming:
State of the Sanctuary
The current state of the sanctuary, in this moment, is a 100% chance of snow with Jamie spending the day with her books. She’s still thoroughly enamored with the Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary book and is also enjoying her new boot and shoe books.
I just snapped this photo of Jamie’s nest in the playroom:
She left her cozy nest long enough to throw me one of her new boots so that I could put it on and play a game of indoor chase for a few minutes.
For a bigger picture view of the State of the Sanctuary and the super exciting plans for the future, watch this video!
And then make a year-end gift to help us reach the goal of $20,000 raised in the next four days before the clock strikes midnight and the calendar turns to 2018.
Christmas Deconstructed
Hopefully you’ve watched the video (several times) of the chimps’ holiday party yesterday – it was a pretty amazing day for all of the chimpanzees and the humans who were here to celebrate with them.
The chimps’ friends really know what makes for a great party! A good 98% of the decorations, food, gifts, and blankets were donated from friends near and far.
I thought it would be fun to share some of the still photos from yesterday to deconstruct the party a bit and tell you more about the day.
The first thing to deconstruct is the party food. We are pretty strict about the chimps’ diet. The vast majority of what the chimps eat is fresh produce, supplemented with nuts, seeds, and a small amount of commercially-made “primate chow.” We do not give them food that has added sugar or salt, and we give them very little processed food other than the primate chow. We want the chimpanzees here to be as healthy as possible, so we see their diet as preventative health care.
A few times a year, for special occasions, we bend the rules just a little bit, though you still won’t see the chimps here eating candy. As you can tell from the food squeaks, they are pretty pleased with what we offer.
One thing that dawned on me when we had the Jungle Solstice party last week is that a big part of the chimps’ excitement is not necessarily what the food is, but the fact that we bring out plates for parties. It seems like such a small thing, but I think they have realized that paper plates = party, so and they get excited even if the food on the plates is what they would normally be served on a random day.
Their Christmas plates this year had baked potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and cut-up fresh pomegranate:
For the bending-the-rules food, we also included slices of Field Roast’s Celebration Roast:
The champagne flutes (another “hey, it’s a party” signal) were filled with slightly watered down non-alcoholic sparkling cranberry cider (no sugar added):
Kelsi made the drinks extra fancy by adding a few pomegranate arils to each glass:
The other breaking-the-rules food that’s become a tradition for the holiday party is dinner rolls. Many of the chimpanzees go straight for the rolls, leaving some of the other food on the plate as seconds. That’s what sneaky Missy was “stealing” in the video from yesterday:
Negra is possibly the biggest fan of bread that I know, so she is always pleased to have this extra special treat. Knowing that, some cut up dinner roll pieces were placed in one of her favorite spots up on the catwalk:
The prize pineapple top that you saw Jody with in the video was a leftover from their breakfast. Jody made sure it was okay with Jamie before she took it upstairs to eat in private:
So, what about the presents?! Well, the trick with presents for most chimpanzees is to hide a bit of food in them. So, most of the bags and little boxes you saw had a nut or some other small not-breaking-the-rules food.
That’s not to say that the chimpanzees don’t appreciate new non-food objects, it’s just that food tends to be more universally exciting.
Jamie was very pleased to get two new pairs of boots yesterday, in addition to several books:
And Foxie got so many new dolls that I lost count. I don’t have a good photo of her with a new doll – suffice it to say that she was very happy with all of them! She handed me a new Strawberry Shortcake doll first thing this morning and then did some playful spins.
Today, the chimpanzees are resting up after the big celebration. Here’s Jamie, sound asleep, using her new boots as a pillow, with one of her favorite new books by her side:
The humans had a lot of clean up to do this morning after that extravaganza, which we did quite happily!
And Katelyn is busy in the office preparing thank you notes for all of the generous friends of the chimpanzees. Luckily part-time office cat LouLou is honing her computer skills to lend Katelyn a hand.
So, if you get an email that says, “rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?????????????????????” from Katelyn, you’ll know why.
Thank you to everyone who made yesterday, today, and all of the days of 2017 so very wonderful for all of the primates at the sanctuary!
Remembering Bill
Nicki Walters sponsored this special Christmas Eve day of sanctuary in memory of her beloved husband, Bill, and she shared this touching message about today:
“This is my Christmas Present to my Sweet Willy Twist who is greatly missed. The Magnificent 7 always brought us so much joy and helped us find our smiles and give us reasons to laugh during several dark days. Even though he isn’t here to enjoy this day, I like to think he still looks on and watches them climb and romp around on his Twister! Merry Christmas to the Chimpazees and all who take such good care of them!”
Nicki, all of the primates here at the sanctuary are so fortunate to call you and Bill our friends. From our hearts, thank you for all you have, and continue, to contribute to making the chimps’ home a true sanctuary. Your amazing gift of Twister has brought so much joy and adventure to the chimps’ lives. It’s given boss lady, Jamie, a perfect vantage point from which to view her queendom and all the happenings in all the land:
It’s encouraged others to reach new heights of courage and daring (Burrito being VERY brave):
Foxie, Dora and Kate:
Jody:
Inspired chimpanzee shenanigans (Missy top, Annie below):
Missy chasing Annie:
And is a daily reminder of all the love that surrounds the chimps and all the good people we get to call part of our chimp family.
Nicki, you and Bill are in our hearts and thoughts and we are sending you all the good thoughts for a season full of love, comfort and peace.
