Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

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New Year’s Day Sponsored by Diane and Sherri

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Today is certainly a very special day. You, supporters of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, helped us to really ring in 2015 in style by getting us beyond our goal of $65,000 in individual donations in the month of December. Wow!

Two people contributed to this success by making a sponsor-a-day donation and choosing this special day to sponsor. Thank you, Sherri Mudri and Diane Mattis!

Sherri’s gift message for today is “Happy New Year to the Magnificent 7!”

and volunteer Diane shared this lovely thought, “New Year’s Day is the beginning of another year for us all to celebrate what we have and think of what we can do in 2015 to make the world a better place. 2015 will be another year for the Chimps to be loved, kept safe and well and grow because of the dedication, kindness and love each person at the Sanctuary provides freely every day. Happy 2015 to the Chimps and the Humans.”

What more needs to be said?

Here are two photos to celebrate today:

Burrito and fancy drinks

bunch of chimps on a structure

This second photo is featured on the back of our 2015 calendar – hopefully many of you are hanging up your calendars today!

 

Welcoming in the New Year

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We are all continuously so amazed by how generous our supporters are—truly, you all keep this sanctuary running! We are able to give Jamie, Foxie, Burrito, Missy, Annie, Negra, and Jody a cozy warm home, good healthy food, long-lasting friendships with caregivers, and an endless supply of trolls, boots, and other enrichment directly because of YOU.

This year, our family of staff and supporters has grown stronger and our hearts have only gotten bigger from how grateful we are to see these seven special beings live their lives without the fear of being in confined biomedical lab cages—not knowing what would happen next.

Now, you can see in their eyes they trust us. They trust us. It truly amazes me after all they’ve been through, that they not only forgive humans, but learn to build friendships with confidence, trust us with their most prized possessions, and even help us out when needed. It’s because of your support that we can maintain these important relationships with these chimpanzees and provide them with hope, love, home, and sanctuary.

Our goal for year-end giving of individual donations was fairly optimistic, but we’re getting closer and closer every minute that we creep toward welcoming 2015. As I write this, we are just $1,512 short of our goal for year-end giving! In just a few short hours, you can help us make it to our goal for this year (or surpass it!)

Dora and friends got dressed up for the New Year’s Eve bash:
Dora the Explorer on NYE

Everyone enjoyed a sparkling apple cider forage, especially Jamie:
jamie drink cider

jamie drink cider

jamie drink cider

jamie drink cider

Missy had her own technique:
missy drink cider

Everyone else was busy collecting the nuts and coconut flakes we scattered around like confetti:

Foxie:
foxie

Annie:
annie

Jody:
jody forage

Negra:
negra forage

negra forage

Cheers to you and yours, and Happy New Year from all of us at
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest!

Monthly favorites

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Earlier this year, we phased out the individual Facebook pages for each chimp in favor of consolidating posts to our main CSNW Facebook page, with the promise that we would post our favorite photos of each chimp every month. Sometimes they are photos we haven’t posted to the blog before, and sometimes they are repeats, but ones that are definitely worth repeating! This month I selected some that haven’t been posted on the blog or Facebook before. I also wanted to thank everyone for their support during this busy month, and all year long!

You don’t have to be on Facebook to see our posts there — here’s the one from today:

Post by Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.

Happy Birthday, Tracy Headley!

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Tracy Headley sponsored today with this message, “I celebrate my friends at CSNW on my 50th birthday.”

Tracy is an impressive supporter of the sanctuary. You may recognize her name because she has sponsored several days, has had days sponsored in her honor, is a Chimpanzee Pal to more than one of the chimpanzees, and donates literally whenever we have any kind of donation opportunity, including sponsoring the HOOT! gala.

Tracy is clearly an incredibly giving person and a friend to all of the primates at the sanctuary. I was so excited when she and her husband Bruce signed up for a Summer Visitor day this past summer and got to see Foxie’s birthday party – – because there’s not much that tops seeing a party thrown for the chimpanzees.

Here’s a photo of Foxie from that day as she scrapes every bit of watermelon out of its skin:

Foxie's face in watermelon

and here’s a bonus photo of Burrito, who’s always up for a party:

Burrito eating apples

Thank you for all of your generous support, Tracy, including sponsoring today.

Foxie, Burrito, and crew wish you the best of all birthdays today and we hope you are throwing yourself a big party!

I know Tracy would want everyone to know that we need only five more sponsored days to reach our goal of 50 new sponsored days before the end of the year. Help us get there by picking a day to sponsor for yourself or a loved one.

 

Missy in winter light

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Today, the day after Christmas, was absolutely gorgeous! Clear skies and very little wind, which meant the chimpanzees got to spend some quality time on the hill. And a gorgeous day makes for beautiful photos of the chimpanzees.

Before taking a look at the photos below, be sure you’ve watched the video from yesterday’s holiday party. It’s our most shared video on Facebook, so you should probably check it out (and share it!) if you haven’t already.

I felt lucky to get these photos of Missy on one of my many walks around the hill today.

Missy was actually sitting still for a few minutes, seemingly taking it all in:

missy side view look away

missy side view

 

And, even more rare, she stood still for a few moments:

missy stand look left

Missy look right

Missy look camera

 

But just a few minutes – pretty soon she was off running, as per her usual pace:

missy run away

It still thrills me to witness how much Missy enjoys running, and to know that she can now run as much as she wants.

A wonderful Christmas time

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The chimps (and the humans!) have been having a really great Christmas, thanks to all our amazing supporters! We had five people sponsor the day for the chimps today, so we owe a big thank you again to Laurel H., Kathleen K., Molly W., Michael H., and Janine B.

Also a huge shout out to Lisa S. and Jayne R. for their decorations that we were able to spread across yesterday‘s and today’s parties! Carol M. sent us seven adorable chimpiñatas which we added to the decor, too. More thank-yous are in order for everyone that sent in new toys which became presents for today’s celebration, including Sharon & Larry C., Diana M., Lisa S., Jayne R., and Helen K. Here’s part of the haul in front of Santa’s sleigh:

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Volunteer Patti and supporter Anne also picked up a lot of yummy fresh produce for the party and Patti made amazing roasted pumpkins with quinoa, wild rice, and veggies.

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The day began with a small forage of tomatoes, pistachios, and shaved coconut in the tree. Negra was the first out to see what we had set up under (and in) the tree.

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Missy snagged most of the tomatoes, and went through the presents, too:

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The party then moved into the playroom, where all the food and presents from our friends near and far brought a lot of joy to the chimpanzees!

Annie:

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Jamie:

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Foxie:

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Missy:

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Negra:

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Jody:

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Burrito

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As if those photos weren’t enough, here’s a video of the festivities of the day. Thank you again to everyone who has helped bring such happiness to the chimpanzees this Christmas and every day!

Are Chimpanzees Picky Eaters?

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People are often curious what foods the chimps like. The Cle Elum Seven as a group are not very picky – not nearly as picky as other chimpanzees I’ve known. The bulk of the food we provide for the chimps is raw (or sometimes baked or otherwise cooked) fresh produce, and almost everyone eats almost everything we serve. There are a couple of exceptions, of course.

Jamie, for example, eats almost everything, but really does not appreciate the skin of carrots, so we peel hers for her. She also will often turn up her nose if there’s raw spinach in the chimps’ morning smoothie, though I discovered the other day that cooked spinach (frozen and then thawed and blended up with some fruit and almond milk) is better than okay in her opinion. Foxie is probably the pickiest, and declines several different vegetables, preferring fruit. Surprisingly, she loves smoothie with either raw or cooked spinach, even though it’s doubtful she would eat spinach on its own.

Strangely (or maybe not so strange for those who agree with their tastes), as a group they don’t seem to care much for zucchini or summer squash, but they love pumpkin and they like spaghetti squash, so we’re always asking each other – do you know if they will eat this squash? This is what happened tonight when Elizabeth and volunteer Tania were getting dinner together. Elizabeth held up a butternut squash and asked if I knew if the chimps liked that variety. I really wasn’t 100% positive, but Negra gave us the answer with her food squeaks:

Negra eating butternut squash

Negra holding squash

It turns out they all loved it. Missy was probably the most excited, but was moving far too fast to get photos. We’ve learned it is always best to give things a try, even if there’s a chance that one of the chimps might not like one of the foods we serve. Sometimes tastes change, and, because we provide as large a variety of produce as possible and always have three or more choices in a given meal, there’s always something for everyone.