Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimp sanctuary

Happy Birthday, Erin!

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This day of sanctuary has two sponsors! The first is from Tim and Shelley Connelly in honor of their daughter, Erin Connelly. They shared this message about today:

“In celebration of her birthday and in honor of our daughter Erin, who is pursuing a Masters degree in Primatology at CWU and is a volunteer at the sanctuary. Following her dream!”

Tim and Shelley, thank you so much for supporting Erin in such a compassionate way and choosing to make a difference in the chimps’ lives in her honor! We are so fortunate to have many amazing student interns and volunteers helping care for the chimps who come to us through Central Washington University and are happy to be able to share the chimps’ lives with them.

Erin, thank you for all your hard work for the chimpanzees! From all of us here at CSNW we wish you the happiest birthday!!

Foxie:

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Happy Birthday, Marsha!

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This day of sanctuary was sponsored by Bruce Wagman in honor of Marsha Perelman on her birthday! Bruce and Marsha are both amazing friends to not only the chimpanzees, but to animals everywhere, and we’re thrilled to celebrate Marsha’s special day here today! Bruce shared this wonderful message about today:

“About ten or more years ago, through the most random of coincidences involving asbestos, I was introduced to Marsha.  Over the course of time since then, she has been a client, a teacher, a student, a partner, and most important of all, a dear friend.  And she has been an invaluable supporter of the Cle Elum Seven and other chimpanzees, in more ways than anyone can count, but in essence, by giving them her heart (while keeping big chunks of it for her dogs).  All sorts of animals are so lucky Marsha’s heart was born.  As an example of Marsha’s heart in play:  When I told Marsha about the lives of the CSNW chimps before they got to their Cle Elum bliss, her immediate response was, “I just want to go there and meet them and tell them I’m sorry.”  No need, Marsha.  Your actions have made that clear.  Happy Birthday to a true companion along the road to make up for what has been done to the world’s superior species.”

Many thanks to you, Bruce, for sponsoring such a special day in honor of Marsha! We are so full of gratitude to have humans such as yourselves sharing your incredible hearts in the world and for all you both do to make the lives of not only these seven very special chimpanzees better in every way possible, but for the countless other amazing beings whose lives you’ve made a difference in.

Happiest of birthdays to you, Marsha, we hope your day is full of all the love, joy and comfort you provide to so many others! Thank you so much for being part of our chimp family. And hoots of happiness to you from these seven beautiful chimp people:

Annie:

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Burrito:

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Foxie:

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Jamie:

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Jody:

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Missy:

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Negra:

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The Queen of late night

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While Burrito and Annie utilized their bipedal skills to navigate the growing grass on Young’s Hill in the hopes of finding a missed piece of forage, or a new patch of wild greens sprouting up…

Burrito:

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Annie:

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Jamie, of course, opted for something a little higher up.

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And in other news, if you’ve been following the blog for awhile you’re probably aware that as the weather grows nicer boss lady, Jamie, often keeps us out late walking around the perimeter of Young’s Hill with her. After the chimps are served dinner at 4:30 they typically start heading inside to collect their evening food puzzle and make their nests for the night (unless you’re Jamie). The humans’ day ends at 5:30 after the chimps are all safe inside and mostly asleep. But if anyone (again, Jamie) wants to stay out late, we stay until they are ready to come inside. But who do you think stayed out past bedtime this evening?…

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Yep, that’s Negra!! Sitting on her current favorite mound at the very top of Young’s Hill happily eating prickly lettuce! No matter the evening sky is growing darker with the threat of a storm coming, the Queen is in no hurry to come in. So it looks like we have a second boss lady in town. But that’s what sanctuary is all about. And this is probably a rare job where one’s heart grows a little bigger every time your bosses make you work late.

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A few of Annie’s favorite things

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For each of us, every season holds favorite things to look forward to. That one special food, flower, sight, sound or scent that you can only enjoy at a certain time each year.

This spring I’ve watched the chimpanzees anticipating the growth of the wild greens on Young’s Hill and the fruits and vegetables in their garden weeks before anything appeared. For weeks Jody diligently marched to the top of Young’s Hill each day to see if the wild mustard or wild lettuce had begun to grow yet. The second the weather warmed up, Missy began asking us to open the barn doors to their playroom so she could see outside to her beloved garden. And every day she runs to the window next to where we plant her favorite cherry tomatoes each year, checking to see if they’ve magically appeared. This is the first year I’ve noticed the chimps demonstrating such clear anticipation for things to come with the corresponding season. It makes my heart so happy to know that they recognize they have favorite things to look forward to in their sanctuary home throughout the year.

Of course spring in particular offers a variety of favorites for each of the chimpanzees. Annie for example, loves racing across the expanse of Young’s Hill in a mad game of chase and wrestle with her best friend, Missy. But she also increasingly enjoys exploring and foraging on the hill in solitude. Just sitting and taking in the sky, the surrounding fields and watching the birds. Often she will be the only person out on the hill, perfectly content and serene.

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And another of Annie’s endearing favorites as the season grows warmer? Toes. Yep, Annie loves to see human toes! The second she spots our feet in sandals she immediately blows raspberries (indicating she wants to see our toes right now!), grabs a tool, and races over to check them out, utterly mesmerized. Around here, the humans are pretty smitten with chimp toes and while I think their toes are a lot cooler than ours, I guess I can see why she might be fascinated by these strange things that probably seem so similar and yet so different to her own.

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