Long-time followers of the blog have probably seen us write about the ever cool and aloof Missy. She doesn’t mind the humans, but we don’t really serve a purpose for her outside of her daily needs and she usually prefers the company of her best friend, Annie, and chimp family. And she has places to go and things to do. That’s the beauty of choice.
The chimps have been here for nearly 9 years now and it’s really only been in the last couple of years that we have seen Missy take more of an occasional interest in engaging with the humans. For example, it’s becoming more common for Missy to ask us to groom her or engage in a game of tug o’ war. And as Missy’s partner in Positive Reinforcement Training (PRT) I have definitely seen an increase in her excitement upon seeing the humans and her taking the initiative to engage us in a game of chase, just for the sake of play (as opposed to just brilliantly leading the humans to do her bidding like picking something from the garden or opening the barn doors up for her).
Missy is not a particular fan of having her photo taken (I can relate). But today she came up and sat next to me at the caging and just hung out. I always ask the chimps before I take their photo, which I did with Missy, and this is typically where she turns her back to the camera or takes off. But she tolerated me and the camera in her face and graced me with one, fleeting nano second of eye contact with those beautiful eyes. What a gift for us all. Then she pushed her lemon peel out at me, nodded her head, and took off for a game of chase.
