Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Burrito

Happy Birthday, Jan!

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Today was sponsored by Linda and Jody Shuger for Jan Carroll! Linda and Jody shared this message about their gift:

“CSNW is Jan’s #1 charity and Burrito is her #1 favorite chimp! Sending some gifts to Burrito so he can celebrate with Janet since his birthday was not too long ago! Happy Birthday Janet and Happy Belated Birthday Burrito!! Love, Linda and Jody”

Linda and Jody, thanks so much for including us in your celebration of Jan and her love for the chimps AND for giving us another opportunity to celebrate our guy, Burrito (whose birthday was on January 6th)! We so appreciate your heartfelt generosity and the joy you’ve helped bring to these lives.

Happy Birthday, Jan! We hope this is the best one yet and just like the chimps’, may your each year ahead be better than the last. Thank you so much for loving these special chimp people.

Burrito:

Eat, Play, Love

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Burrito is really such a snow fiend. His first order of business for us today was to give him his pre-breakfast snow. When he gained access to the Greenhouse and Young’s Hill, he seemed unsure if he wanted to venture outside to collect his own snow.

He then thought of the most perfect plan. He can sit in the Greenhouse, and just have his human caregivers deliver him his post-breakfast snow. That way he had access to the outdoors, but the pesky wind would be blocked by the winter paneling, and he could enjoy.

Really though! He really loves snow.

Jamie, being the Boss, also wanted to partake on the snow harvesting the humans were doing for Burrito.

As usual, Negra decided to stay inside, nice and warm, under a blanket in the Playroom.

On the other side of the Chimp House, Honey B and Mave have been in super silly moods lately. They engaged in an intense play session with tons of laughing.

Willy B was not a fan of all the noise they were causing as he was trying to take his pre-lunch nap.

Luckily for him, Honey B and Mave stopped playing and began grooming.

It’s days like today when all the chimpanzees are happy, that my day feels complete and I have a constant smile on my face.

The One with all the Sun

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You guys! I don’t want to jinx anything… But the sun is out, you can feel the warmth, and there were some really happy chimps! Fingers crossed this means spring is coming early. Please enjoy all these photos of the chimps basking in the sun.

Neggie took a small stroll:

Missy and Annie were sprinting all around the Hill, all day:

Burrito really enjoyed walking around with all the ladies:

I was able to capture a group action shot of almost everyone scattering onto the Hill in the morning when it first opened:

Jamie building her nest:

And modifying her blankets:

Mave grooming herself:

Honey B :

If your heart wasn’t melting before, it will be:

Honey B was just being so silly and funny. So funny that I would actually laugh out loud. She would be eating breakfast than suddenly roll around on a barrel and burst into a full sprint out into the Chute! She put her fanny pack on and press it up to the enclosure to have you look at it. She than would take it off and offer for her caregivers to wear it. Honey B just seemed to be in a really good mood. I thought I might share 🙂

 

 

Run with the Wind

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The sun was out. The clouds were gone. But the wind was a force to be reckoned with. With weather forecasts predicting the winds to be in the range of 14 mph to 34 mph today, the wind could be heard all throughout the Chimp House.

When I gave the Group of 7 access to Young’s Hill, there were only a few takers to initially go out. Jamie and Foxie were the first to go out and conduct a patrol around their outdoor enclosure. As they came around to the last stretch of their patrol, both Jamie and Foxie were racing toward the Greenhouse.

Judging by Foxie’s sneer, she was not a fan of the wind and just wanted the patrol to be over with.

Missy initially watched as Jamie and Foxie began their patrol, but seemed to be at a crossroads on whether to join them or not.

But Missy is Missy, and without warning, shot out of the raceway onto Young’s Hill. So fast I was only able to lift the camera and get a somewhat blurry photo of her racing to catch up with Jamie and Foxie.

But the wind was too much for Annie. She stayed in the doorway between the Greenhouse and Young’s Hill and watched as Missy charged up the Hill.

Burrito took no time at all to make his decision: Stay in the Greenhouse and let the plexiglass paneling block the wind.

Negra decided to bypass all that. She remained in the Playroom, covered in blankets, basking in the rays of the sun through the window.

On the other side of the Chimp House, Willy B was eager to go into the Chute. He grabbed the best seat in the house so he could watch a train go by and the birds who are starting to return from their winter break.

Let’s hope this isn’t a false Spring so more outdoor adventures could be had.

Happy Birthday, Stanley!

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A day of sanctuary was sponsored for the chimpanzees by their amazing friend, Jamie Reagin, in honor of Stanley Friedman who is celebrating his 89th birthday today!

Jamie, thank you so much for being such an incredible part of the chimpanzees’ lives and all you do to make sanctuary possible for not only Jamie, Missy, Annie, Jody, Burrito, Foxie, Negra, Mave, Honey B and Willy B, and Betsy, Nutmeg, Honey and Meredith, but for each of those to come. We so appreciate you including the chimps (and us all!) in your celebration with Stanley!

Stanley, may this be the best birthday yet! We hope you have the most wonderful day and are so happy to celebrate with you! Thanks for sharing your day with the chimpanzees and making a difference in their lives.

Honey B, scootin’:

Boss lady, Jamie:

Burrito, being Burrito:

A day in the sun

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I once had the great privilege of watching a mama coyote step out into the cool morning air of the forest, stop and look at me, and then look over her shoulder where I saw her very young pups exit their den and come tumbling after her, rolling and wrestling with each other, feeling perfectly safe and at ease and full of joy in the early morning light. It’s remained one of my most cherished memories actually, and I think of it often. When I opened the door to Young’s Hill for the seven this morning, that memory lit up in my mind’s eye again as I watched them literally spill out of the door and onto the hill together, Jamie in the lead, Missy and Jody wrestling and grabbing one another’s feet all the way up the hill behind Jamie, followed by Annie and Foxie chasing each other as they took their joy-filled procession around the perimeter.

As I followed the girls I caught sight of Burrito, hesitantly bringing up the rear. He has been accompanying them around the hill, but sometimes appears unsure about having to catch up on his own or being able to keep up with their speed. Burrito is healing so well, but understandably, he’s still working on gaining his full strength and stamina back. Once he saw that I was waiting for him he immediately did his patented hop and skip (I don’t think we’ve caught this on video yet, but it’s an adorable little springy-bouncey-kick-of-the-back-legs thing only B does) which my heart did in turn at the sight of him, and we were off. We occasionally stopped along the way so he could rest and take in the sights and I just followed at his pace.

This one melts my heart a little. Whenever I’d slow down, he would give a little jump and make sure I was still coming:

Annie sat silently for the longest time, just taking in the view and the sunshine:

It was just one of those lucky days when all ten of the chimpanzees concurred with my plans for shifting and cleaning today so that right after breakfast everyone was able to scoot outside, where they remained for the majority of the day! It’s been possibly the warmest, sunniest day we’ve this winter and everyone was basking in all the light. **A sidenote for those who may be wondering: Mave, Honey B and Willy B continue to have frequent opportunities to access their own private courtyard along Young’s Hill, but they haven’t been ready to leave the comfort and familiarity of the chute yet and that’s okay. They’ll get there, or not, in their own time and way. In the meantime, they seem to thoroughly enjoy hanging out in the chute, watching the other chimps, hooting and hollering, taking in the sights and the sun. And to be honest, they still tend to spend the majority of their time inside even when they have access to the chute. But it’s always their choice, just as it should be.

It didn’t take long for Jody and Foxie to realize that Mave, Willy B, and Honey B had chute access and could be spied upon from their spot on Young’s Hill:

I looked up to see Negra multi-tasking from her favorite spot in the playroom: baking in the sun, taking in the view and keeping an eye on the neighbors while blowing an occasional kiss to caregivers:

These were from a couple days ago when there was still a dusting of snow on the ground. It’s just so heart-lifting to see everyone enjoying these sunny, crisp midwinter days outside, or indoors from a variety of sun puddles.

Foxie and Strawberry Shortcake:

Missy:

Jody searching for an ice treat:

I’ll end with a quick story from this morning. If you’ve been following the blog awhile you are probably aware of Burrito’s complete and utter obsession with eating snow this season. He’s always loved it, but this year is a whole other level of snow snack love. Before we’re even fully in the chimp house in the morning, he makes sure we know the first order of business is to get him a snow snack immediately. And I do mean immediately. He’s madly blowing raspberries, kicking the caging and pointing out the window and will NOT be ignored (not that we would ignore him 😉 ). We’re only to happy to oblige, but with these spring-like days the snow is all but gone. But yesterday, I found one remaining pile down the driveway and along the shady side of the barn. So staff caregiver Chad was sent on a mission this morning and returned a bit later with a hammer, frozen fingers and two buckets of snow, much to B’s delight. Now Burrito’s latest thing is to finish up the day by having a final snow snack before bed as well! We are going to have to buy bags of ice and fire up the snow-cone machine before long to keep him in snow snacks year-round I guess.

In memory of Susan

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This lovely day of sanctuary is sponsored annually by Jen Douglas in memory of her beloved friend, Susan von Beck Turner, on her birthday. Jen shared this message about her gift:

“Susan was a tireless animal advocate. She was unable to find a boarding facility that was suitable for her big Newfie mix, Cardiff, so she decided to build her own. She bought a piece of land, cleared it herself and built ‘Cardiff’s Lodge’ catering for bigger dogs, where the dogs could be outside playing and walked on hiking trails instead of being cooped up in a kennel all day. It was a dream vacation for dogs. Sadly, Susan passed away on October 16, 2014 and the world is a worse place without her.”

Jen, thank you so much for helping to ensure Susan’s legacy lives on and for including the chimpanzees’ and cattle in celebration of the wonderful person she was. We so appreciate all you, James, and your family have brought to the lives of the chimpanzees.

Burrito:

Willy B: