Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Annie

Happy Birthday, Julie!

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Many thanks to Karen Olson who is sponsoring this day of sanctuary in honor of her sister, Julie Olson:

“Happy Birthday to the best sister anyone could ever have!”

As you may recall, we recently celebrated Karen’s birthday which was sponsored by Julie! It’s an incredibly uplifting and hopeful thing when we get to see those of you who are family and friends choose to celebrate one another by coming together to contribute to the chimpanzees’ lives, their well-being and happiness. To count them as part of your family.

Happy Birthday, Julie! We’re so grateful to you and Karen for all you’ve done, and continue to do, to ensure the chimpanzees and cattle have days full to the brim with the best we can possibly provide them. All of us here at CSNW send you wishes for the happiest of days!

Missy and Annie:

Happy Birthday to our Queen Negra!

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To know Negra is a true honor. She is unapologetically herself. To know who you are is a very important life skill. To have the ability to express yourself is also very important. Negra’s life has not been easy. However, Negra is a chimp who knows how she likes things and what she wants. Negra knows she loves pine-coco juice, lettuce, and chow. Negra as many of us know is the queen of comfort, she loves to make people dance for her, and when she wants to play she is not afraid to initiate it. When she feels like it, she gives the best kisses. Negra also gets to make those choices. She gets to choose where and how to make her nest, if she wants to go out on Young’s Hill, and she gets to express herself how she chooses. If Negra feels annoyed with her caregivers she can show her feelings, and trust us Negra is not afraid of holding back :).

June 13th, 2008 changed many lives. Most importantly everyday for 12 years seven chimps’ lives have gotten better each and everyday. And seven chimps became ten chimps. While our family may be growing, our visions and goals as a sanctuary have not. As Leslie Knope once asked in a TV show called Parks and Rec, “Are you better off now than you were a year ago?”. The answer is ABSOLUTELY and Negra is the perfect example of that. Happy Birthday to our Queen Negra. You are so very special to us.

If you missed the The Queen’s Brunch today you can still donate on our auction page. There are still a few second chance items left. Don’t miss out!

The Queen laying on her throne.

We had a huge forage out on Young’s Hill for lunch. Jody had arms full of cattails and a mouth full of roses. She also scored a big chunk of coconut. However, Jody got a little distracted near Negra. Negra looked over and to her dismay there was an abandoned coconut! Negra looked to be the happiest person in the world!

Negra with the coconut.

Missy zipped around the whole forage. I literally never saw her walking.

Jamie with arms and a foot full of lettuce.

Bubba enjoying his peppers.

Negra loving her lettuce too.

We hope you all had as much fun with the virtual auction and brunch as we did! I will leave you with these two images of Negra.

A day of sanctuary

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Marcus Andrews sponsored a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees and cattle today in honor of “My other half.”

Marcus, thank you for celebrating your special person by making a difference in the lives of fourteen more special individuals! We truly appreciate you thinking of them all in this way.

Missy and Annie:

Toasty Warm Green House

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As many of you know we have an Amazon Wish List where wonderful people buy things the chimps need or items that go to our daily operations. In these weird times, like many of you might know, things are limited on Amazon or may take a while to ship. We use gloves and disinfectant everyday, but we are going through them more quickly now. We started running low on gloves and other cleaning items that are super important to protect the chimps, which worried us a bit! Luckily, Jerrol’s, a local store nearby Ellensburg, had every thing we needed and were fully stocked. We ordered gloves and disinfectant in minutes! If you are ever curious how you can help the chimps please check out our Amazon Wish List or if you would like to help us during this weird time you can buy a gift card to Jerrol’s to help us purchase gloves and other day to day cleaning items we may need!

To be honest, it was hard to get photos of the chimps today. They were either baking in the warm Green House or scattered on the Hill. However, I managed to snap a few good ones of Annie grooming herself in the toasty warm green house.

This photo was captured right as the seven received access to Young’s Hill this morning.

Burrito taking a stroll.

Negra right before she decided it wasn’t quite warm enough yet.

Jamie on her after dinner walk, also walking the opposite direction than normal.

Day 31

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Today marks day 31 of our new normal, for the humans, that is. For any new blog followers; because of COVID-19 we have been taking extra precautions to make sure the chimps are not exposed. We have a whole routine just to walk into the chimp house in the morning. We glove & mask up, disinfect our shoes & personal things, and we change into scrubs. All throughout the day we are changing gloves and washing our hands. The other part of our new normal, which is were we started counting our new normal, it is just staff and one volunteer that met our very strict criteria. So, to say we have been busy would be an understatement! We have been keeping a record of our new normal. See photo below. But, if we wanted to get technical we believe this started 36 days ago.

However, for the chimps nothing has changed! They are blissfully unaware of the pandemic going on and they are all enjoying the nice weather! In the photos you can see the green grass coming back (EEEK!)

We have the marvelous Missy! Today, on Young’s Hill Missy and Annie ran out of the raceway chasing each other. Missy was also walking all over the fire hose on the Hill, she has some seriously amazing balance!

A perfectly graceful twist as the dismount!

Missy sprinting down the Hill.

I mean that takes a strong core balance!

Jamie leading the perimeter walk, while Burrito followed. Missy and Annie were chasing each other and took a break to join the walk.

I noticed Annie had been draping this piece of blanket over her waist, she kind of stuck a side in each pelvic pocket to create a waist band. Than when everyone got access to the Hill in the morning. I saw Annie carrying it out with her. Even through sprinting after Missy, Annie kept it with her or knew exactly where it was so she could grab it!

Negra gathered everyone’s orange peels and headed out onto the Hill.

Burrito looking over towards the Chute, hoping to catch a glimpse of Honey B, Mave, & Willy B.

On the Phase 1 side, Honey B was being her goofy self. I found Honey B balancing on this fire hose, wearing a headband, and upside down.

Later, she went up to look at herself in the mirror.

She is a pretty amazing individual.

Moments of spring

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It’s been another crazy busy day here at the chimps’ (and bovines’) home, but it was a gift to us all to have our first warm, spring day. And as if on cue, the swallows returned from their wintering grounds en masse, immediately taking to swooping the property, chittering loudly and staking out the nesting boxes, getting straight to work. One of our returning bluebird pairs also returned today which was so exciting to see.

Dear, beautiful Annie soaking up the morning sun from the raceway (with wonderful Missy in the background):

I hope you are all getting moments in the sun, be they literal or figurative, and taking good care of yourselves. May you rest easy tonight with visions of sunshiney Annie in your head. 🙂 I’m going to go and eat my lunch…er, linner (?) now! I totally forgot! Goodnight, all!

Barrels of Fun!

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Barrels are a great form of enrichment. They are often used to sit on to get a better view of the neighbors, or for drumming on to build up a big display, sometimes they are used for reaching an enrichment puzzle, and commonly the barrels are used for a good nap. Jamie can be found relaxing on a barrel, usually when the humans are cleaning. So, she can still keep her eye on them and request drinks of water from the hose when she is parched. When she has had enough rest, the humans are right there close enough for her to select the boot of her choice and take a lap around the Hill.

Jamie on her barrel enjoying some Alfalfa:

Jamie deep in thought:

Jamie inspecting something holding a wooden hammer in her feet:

Jamie 🙂

Now, when you look at the pictures you might be thinking how is this comfortable. But, chimps often prefer to sit or lay on objects that elevate them off the ground rather than sit or nap on the floor. Though that is not true for all, for example Foxie lays on the floor and wants nothing to do with blankets. However, you see this in the wild and in captivity that chimps prefer to sit higher, even if it is just a barrel or a chair.

Jamie sitting on a chair grooming some XtraTUF boots:

Also, I was going to save these photos for another day, but why not share them now!

This morning when the chimps first got access to Young’s Hill I spotted Missy and Annie rippin’ around the Hill chasing each other with huge play faces:

Missy sprinting:

Negra popped out for a bit of sun:

Burrito marched out with this purple plastic flat-head screwdriver:

And then there was the ever so sweet, cool as can be, and silly Foxie:

I almost didn’t include this one because it is a little out of focus, but I like it and I hope you do too!