Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

anniversary

Two Years with the Lucky Six

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Can you believe it? Today we celebrated the 2nd anniversary of the arrival of the Lucky Six—Cy, Lucky, Terry, Dora, Rayne, and Gordo—from the Wildlife Waystation. As you probably know, the Lucky Six are now part of a group of nine, along with Willy B, Honey B, and Mave, and together they enjoyed a party complete with young coconuts and Gatorade ice blocks.

The day was also sponsored by Rose Mankowski in memory of her mother:

My Mom, Irene Mayes, would’ve turned 96 today – June 26, 2023 – but she died in August 5th, 2022. Irene loved primates, especially chimpanzees, since she was a little girl. Happy Heavenly Birthday, Mom.

Thank you, Rose, for honoring your mom in this way.

Today’s festivities took place in the playroom, greenhouse, and on the Bray. The chimps screamed in excitement as they watched us put out the forage and treats. As the party began, both Rayne and Terry grabbed what they could on their way out the door and made a beeline straight for the Bray, where a giant Gatorade ice block awaited them.

Within minutes they were joined by Gordo, Lucky, and Cy, who also brought their treats outside.

While Lucky did get to enjoy the ice block, she actually seemed to delight in the turnips as well. For a chimp, there’s nothing better than liking food that the others aren’t as interested in.

Ever the explorer, Rayne set out for the other climbing structures on the Bray and ate her way across the habitat.

Terry also went for a walk through the habitat and was rewarded for his efforts with a second coconut.

While the others were outside, Honey B, Mave, and Dora cleaned up the forage inside and in the chute.

Willy B was very happy to have gotten a coconut for himself. There was just one problem…how the heck do you open these things?

Do you bite them?

Smash them?

Not long after the party began, a thunderstorm rolled in, with one particularly loud clap of thunder catching Gordo by surprise.

The rest of the gang took their loot back inside and we closed off the habitat for their safety.

Earlier in the day, the chimps on Jamie’s side had their own party to celebrate their neighbor’s arrival. While they don’t live with the Lucky Six, the presence of another group next door amounts to an ever-evolving soap opera to which they are all glued—and that’s worth celebrating, too.

Negra:

Burrito:

Jamie:

Foxie:

Missy:

Annie:

2023 Day of Days: The Trifecta Jubilee

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Today was such a busy day in the most of exciting ways! Today is the Trifecta Jubilee! Today we celebrated Terry’s 33rd birthday, Negra’s 50th birthday, and the 15 year anniversary of the arrival of the Cle Elum Seven!

Today was a non-stop celebration with many happenings that came along with the undying support of Paulette Wrisley in today’s second sponsor! Thank you so much Paulette for sponsoring Terry and Negra’s birthdays!

It’s hard to  believe Negra and her group arrived in Washington from the Buckshire Corporation in Pennsylvania. There have been many growing pains for both chimpanzee and caregivers both former and current, but all of them for the better. In the 15 years, they have experience the outdoors for the first time in their lives, had room to run around and play in, and as of this year, able to climb their first tree!

It’s also really hard to believe Negra is now 50 years old! Negra is such a strong-willed person who knows exactly what she likes and wants. Though she is 50, is still doesn’t stop here from experiencing new things, when she wants to of course. Negra is such a well respected person by both chimpanzee and human. For her 50th birthday, there were many surprises for her. You have to watch the video to see what they were!

And Teeny Tiny Terry. How lucky are we to just know such a special person. In the couple short years we have known Terry, one thing about him we know is certain: he is the purest of souls! Terry wears his heart on his sleeve, and that heart holds nothing but sincerity. There are no tricks with him. What he does or says, he means, and it’s 100% love.

Here are some bonus photos from today!

Negra

Rayne

Missy

Gordo

Annie

King of the Hill

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While on a walk with Jamie, I observed Burrito and Missy following each other on the logs and then start to wrestling. It made me think about when I was young playing king of the sand dune with my brother. I asked the rest of the staff if they had ever played this game when they where kids, which of course they had! Some of their variations were: king of the mountain, king of the hill, and king of the log! The object of the game was to be the last one standing and then you were pronounced king of the object you were standing on, said log, mattress, or hill and then you have bragging rights for as long as you rein! Today, for Missy and Burrito it seems as though no one holds the title but I see a rematch in their future!

Time has flown by! Can you believe it already been 4 years with our wonderful bovines!

Honey and her gang:

Honey:

Meredith:

Nutmeg and Betsy:

HOOT! Success and Negra’s Aging Backwards

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Last week at this time the chimpanzees were partied out, Katelyn was watching over the sanctuary, and the rest of the staff and a ton of volunteers and supporters were having the annual fundraising party in Seattle. HOOT! 2018 brought in more funds than any previous event. The night-of fundraising was over-the-top and many people who were unable to attend sent in donations from across the country. It was the eighth such event that we’ve had, starting in 2009 and skipping 2012. Each year the love seems to grow stronger!

Andy of Inland Networks TV created the highlights video below. One of the biggest moments was during the Give a HOOT! part of the evening where supporters raise their paddles to make donations. Overall, the event raised over $200,000, and a full half of that was just from Give a HOOT! It was nothing short of amazing! Big thanks to EVERYONE who donated with a special nod to Karen Emmerman Mazner, James & Jennifer Douglas and Ross & Karen Barde. Also thanks to challenge pledges from Kathy Cochran and Leah Roberts who were not attending but helped inspire others to donate.

 

Part of my talk at the event was about not knowing how long the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees would be with us when they arrived a the sanctuary on June 13, 2008. Negra was 35 years old at the time, which is considered elderly. But she’s still going strong and demonstrates the “aging in reverse” phenomenon that seems to have happened for all seven of the chimpanzees.

Here is the photo of Negra that we put on the home page of the website on the first day that the chimpanzees arrived:

Negra on day one

 

Today, Negra climbed to the top of the new (still unnamed!) structure on the hill – the top! I didn’t get a good photo, but I took some others of her exploring.

 

 

We celebrate Negra’s birthday on the anniversary of the chimpanzees’ arrival because she is the epitome of what the sanctuary is all about and it was certainly a new beginning for her. Thank you for being a part of it, whether you have been following for ten years or ten minutes.

 

Year Two

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To celebrate the Eighth Anniversary of the chimps’ arrival to the sanctuary, we’re taking a quick trip down memory lane. Click here to read about Year One. 

As the chimps entered their second year in sanctuary, their physical and emotional transformations were becoming ever more apparent. When they first arrived, their hair was sparse, their skin was pale, and their muscles were atrophied. These early photos of Jamie speak volumes.

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Some bore not just the scars of experimentation, but also indelible, haunting reminders of their traumatic pasts in the form of prominent identification tattoos.  Jamie was CH-522.

web Jamie chest tattoo

To our great relief, the tattoos became harder and harder to see as their bodies recovered from years in that windowless basement. By Year Two, their hair had begun to grow in, their skin had darkened, and their faces – once frozen and nearly expressionless – were overflowing with personality.

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As Diana mentioned in her Year One post, our resources were extremely limited in those early days. With our goal of freeing the chimps from that laboratory basement accomplished, we set our sights on improving their sanctuary home as best we could. Thanks to support from our amazing donors and volunteers, we were able to convert the chimps’ modest outdoor area into a four-season, convertible greenhouse so that they could bask in warm sunlight even on the coldest winter days:

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Greenhouse Fun!

With their bodies healed and their sanctuary home upgraded, the chimps did what happy chimps do best – play! It was amazing to watch them throw off the weight of all those decades in the lab.

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Foxie and Jamie’s epic play session

“Oh, Neggie…”

Missy and the Kong toy

Year One

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Today marks the eighth anniversary of the arrival of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees–Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy, and Negra–to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest and a celebration of Negra’s 43rd birthday.

It’s so hard for me to believe that eight years have already passed since the chimps’ arrival, and it’s even harder for me to believe that Negra is eight years older than she was when the truck full of chimpanzees pulled up the sanctuary driveway on June 13, 2008.

truck pulling up driveway with chimps

Negra in transport cage

Because this is such a nostalgic time for everyone who has been following the story of the chimpanzees at the sanctuary, and because so many people are relatively new followers, I thought it would be fun and informative to take this week to briefly chronicle some of the events of the last eight years, one year per day.

Of course I know you won’t want to miss the news of today’s big celebration, so we will be sharing that later today on the blog too. If you are subscribed to the e-newsletter, you will also be receiving an email today that celebrates Negra’s journey over the last eight years.

For now, here’s a glimpse of the first year of sanctuary for the Cle Elum Seven.

 

EVERYTHING was new to the chimpanzees.

 

From enrichment:

 

 

To the views out the windows:

 

To the changes in weather:

 

Rainstorm bravery

Missy standing in doorway

 

Let it snow!

Annie eating snow, Jamie and Negra in doorway

 

And the chimpanzees were new to us humans, too. Though we had met them at Buckshire before they came to the sanctuary, we didn’t have the chance to really get to know them until we spent time with them in their new home. We started to learn about their personalities and their likes and dislikes pretty quickly.

Here is one observation about Jamie and her intelligence a few days after the chimps arrived:

Learning about Jamie

 

And of course the humans, and Foxie herself, discovered her lasting love of troll dolls during her first year of sanctuary, leading us to ask supporters for more troll dolls. None of us knew then how big her collection would become!

Foxie with Troll and night time package

 

Foxie’s first troll doll:

Foxie and Trixie

 

Foxie demonstrating that troll dolls suit her fun-loving personality:

foxie-troll-on-head

 

We were delighted to discover Burrito’s out-of-this-world food-squeaking:

 

Touched by Annie’s love of Missy:

Annie grooming Missy

Missy and Annie with big playfaces
Missy and Annie with big playfaces

 

And thrilled with Jody’s ability to relax:

Jody on Valentine's Day, just holding her feet

5-10-09-jody-with-roses

 

Every day of the chimps’ first year in sanctuary was an incredible gift.

I’m not going to lie–we had some tough times as an organization as we were just getting our footing. There were stressful moments, to be sure, but it was so inspiring to have the opportunity to watch the chimpanzees learn more about their new home and themselves. And it was incredible to connect with other people who wanted to be a part of giving them that chance. This blog has played a big role in that process, and I’m grateful to everyone who has read it in the past and is reading it right now. Thank you!

It’s pretty thrilling to think that if you stick around you will also be a part of providing so many “firsts” for more chimpanzees who will be coming to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in the future.

 

Negra out and about on her birthday + the 7th anniversary celebration

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Below is a video of the elusive Negra, who was very active on her honorary 42nd birthday! All seven chimpanzees were in terrific moods and very busy all day. There are a few photos below the video.

Negra wasn’t the only one who enjoyed the surprise breakfast night bags. Burrito savored his too:

Burrito eating breakfast night bag

Thanks to supporters who sent party supplies, today’s celebration featured many piñatas.

If you attended our recent successful HOOT! fundraiser, you will recognize this piñata, which Annie is looting:

Annie treasure chest piñata

Jody scored the dog piñata:

Jody with dog piñata

And Jamie (not surprisingly) got her hands on more than one piñata, then decided to take them into the front rooms:

Jamie with pinata 3

Jamie with pinata 2

Jamie with pinata 1

Foxie had her favorite France Dora with her for most of the day:

Foxie with France Dora

 

Until we gave her a new, more compact Dora that was left at the gate by some anonymous donor with some other fun new gifts:

 

Foxie with little Dora

To set up the lunch forage, volunteer Lynn climbed the new tall towers to hide food there. Jody and Missy were the first to partake:

Jody and Missy climbing

Though we haven’t yet seen Negra climb the new structure, she surprised us by climbing another platform today to get some lettuce:

Negra climbing

Negra on top of platform

And then we only caught glimpses of her this afternoon as she confidently explored the hill:

Negra walking in the tall grass

Proving, once again, that the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees have been aging in reverse for the last seven years. Thank you to everyone who has helped to make this possible!!!!!