Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzee rescue

Hoppy Easter!

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Today was a full day of mini-parties! First, we had a juice forage in the Playroom (something all the chimps love), then we set up a lunch forage in the greenhouse, followed by an Easter Egg Hunt on Young’s Hill! On the menu for lunch was Easter baskets of cut up fruits and veggies in a bed of lettuce, courtesy of volunteers Stephanie and Katelyn. The chimps were so excited!

Missy:

Foxie got a couple of new trolls, thanks to Katelyn and to Dick and Robbi Brown, who donated tons of new toys for the party:

Jody with her head in the game

Burrito always has his head in the game!

Jamie and her loot:

Negra and Jody enjoying their lunch together

Negra was so happy!

After lunch, the chimps went out on Young’s Hill for an Easter Egg Hunt! We were so excited to be able to see them search 2-acres for plastic Easter eggs filled with peanuts and berries. There were also carrots stuck in the ground, allowing them to “harvest” their own carrots! What a fun day!

Visits from old friends

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The chimps have gotten a few visits from old friends lately. Founder Keith LaChappelle was here last week for Sippin’ for the Seven. The chimps are always so excited when Keith comes to visit, especially his pal Burrito! But this time, Negra was especially affectionate:

And today, former volunteer caregiver Kim visited. The chimps were so excited to see her! While we were cleaning the Greenhouse, she got to spend some quality time with Jamie and Foxie through the chimp-proof glass window.

Joining in on the fun

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Burrito is a pretty shy guy and he’s usually very nervous about new things, which is why we were so happy (and surprised!) that he decided to venture out onto Young’s Hill the first day we opened it. Since then however, he hasn’t spent a great deal of time out there.

But with the weather getting nice, he’s been going out more and more. Today he was the first one out when I opened the door in the raceway and he spent a good 30-40 minutes out there. It’s so good to see him getting more comfortable.

Hiding behind the treat rock

Venturing out with the ladies:

Hiding out

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Negra loves to cover herself in blankets, so as we were wrapping up cleaning today, in thinking of her I was inspired to build more forts in the playroom. We have several bullet-proof glass windows in the playroom but for ventilation purposes, we have left the caging over a few of them. Negra often builds her daytime nest in front of one of the window cages, so I decided to tie blankets up to the caging and let them drape off of the railing, making it a cabana-style fort. I think Negra was pretty pleased.

Though this isn’t a great shot, I love that it shows Negra peaking around the blanket to see what is going on outside of her fort

Burrito liked it a lot too. Here he is enjoying his peanuts in his fort

Jody: Version 2.0

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For as long as we’ve known her, Jody has loved to lounge. While the other chimps frolic around her, she takes it easy in an enormous nest of soft blankets. Young’s Hill, though, is bringing out Jody’s long-latent inner athlete. She’s been playing with the other chimps more and more, and she’s even running for the first time ever.

Today when we opened the door to the hill, Jody shot out like a cork. After a brief run to stretch her legs, she joined Jamie and Foxie for a lengthy game of slow chase. After she had depleted her energy reserves, she found some ice in a tire swing and took it into the greenhouse to enjoy. (Photos courtesy of Jackie)

New boots for Jamie

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The kind folks at Seattle-based Chocolate Shoebox are high on Jamie’s list these days. They recently donated several pairs of new boots via a donation drive put on by the Seattle Animal Defense League. After having them modeled for her by her caregivers, she was eager to inspect them closely and take them for a test drive.

Thanks to Chocolate Shoebox and Seattle Animal Defense League!

The distractor

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Foxie is excellent at distracting people from what they are doing. She chooses the moment we’re getting ready to lock up the chimp area at night to drop her troll doll outside of the caging and then beg for us to give it back to her. And then, she just can’t seem to catch it when we toss it back to her (even though she is a fantastic catcher). Today, she was all about distracting both me (from cleaning) and Jamie (from nesting).