Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
I had the hardest time decided what to do for the blog today. There were many moments worthy of sharing and even more thoughts floating around my head. I could have written a novel.
Instead, I decided to let the two images below speak for themselves. What do you see?
Lord Byron’s poem “She Walks in Beauty” came to mind with the photo of Negra.
P.S. The “featured” image above of Annie’s profile reminded me of a Victorian cameo. I’m not sure why the chimpanzees brought to mind the 1800s today.
I’ve been writing these two small words over and over lately: Thank you.
Donors to the sanctuary made our year-end fundraising soar to new and unexpected heights, and we have been quite busy sending out thank you letters and donation receipts.
I love to write those words, and I love thinking about each person as they made their donation. Some donors I know very well, and I can picture them as I write. Others are new and mysterious, and I wonder how they came to know about the chimpanzee sanctuary in Cle Elum.
Sometimes (often) those two words don’t feel nearly big enough to contain all of the gratefulness that I’m feeling. I hope the actual depth of my appreciation is somehow transferred into the ink as I write.
It really is incredible that people support the sanctuary and take the time and effort to back up that support with often hard-earned money. Knowing that we have this shared concern and mission is powerful.
I feel lucky to have a job where I not only get to be around amazing and unique non-humans, but I also have the opportunity to see the generosity and hope that our own species is capable of demonstrating.
So, reflecting on all of this today, I started to think about how the chimpanzees show gratitude. Thankfulness is a pretty complicated emotion that is probably an amalgam of different feelings, and maybe something that carries a bit of cultural individuality.
We don’t claim to be able to be inside the heads of the chimpanzees, even those we know very well, so I can’t say for sure that they experience thankfulness like I do.
That’s the conundrum about perception, though – I only know what I experience. I can guess that other people/beings experience the same or similar feelings as I do based on imagining how I would feel in a given situation and observing their outward behaviors, but it’s really just a guess.
Given my limitations of knowing much of anything about what’s outside of myself, I do think that the chimpanzees show and maybe feel something akin to gratitude.
When we serve food, we bring it through the chimp area first, as illustrated in the popular “pasta cam” that J.B. created on Burrito’s birthday. The excitement that the chimpanzees exhibit and the satisfying groans they make when we provide them with food is, I think, at least tinged with gratefulness.
Among themselves, when one of the chimpanzees reaches out for reassurance (like Negra here):
and then receives the reassurance they are seeking (from Jamie in this case):
I imagine there’s some thankfulness that’s part of what the reassurance-seeker experiences.
There was a more dramatic experience last fall when we had to suture Jody’s eyelid that I couldn’t help but believe that Jody was thankful for the humans, even though we had to do something that she otherwise would not have appreciated.
And then there are just the little everyday moments when the chimpanzees do a little something that makes me wonder if they are feeling grateful, like when old friends visit and walk with Jamie or today when I caught Missy’s gaze as she turned from the window she was looking out, and she proceeded to walk over and let me groom her back through the fencing.
I can’t say for sure if Missy was thankful that I was there to share the moment with her, but I can say definitively that I felt a whole lot of gratitude.
Thirty-six looks good on this guy!
Burrito, the one male chimpanzee at the sanctuary, is turning 36 tomorrow!
When describing Burrito, I wouldn’t be able to count how many times I have said his age and then inserted the caveat, “but he acts more like a teenager.”
When he arrived to the sanctuary in 2008 at age 26, even then he was well into adulthood; but his boyishness was apparent. Actually, it was apparent to me when I first met him at Buckshire.
Below are a few of the early photos we took of Burrito. There’s just something absolutely irresistible and, yes, cute, about this guy:
Don’t get me wrong, he is a chimpanzee and behaves accordingly. He has his Tasmanian devil moments (no slight or stereotyping of Tasmanian devils intended).
He still regularly spits on me when I’m operating doors, especially in the morning.
But often immediately afterwards he wants to play a game of chase or tug of war:
Burrito’s je ne sais quoi clearly reaches beyond those who are lucky enough to meet him in person – he has many fans, including official Chimpanzee Pals, out there. Being able to share Burrito’s youthful spirit is one of the very best parts of my job.
If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share the similar boyish charm of two other male non-humans at CSNW.
A few years ago, J.B. and I adopted a dog from Lady’s Hope Dog Rescue. He had been a stray and spent some time at a couple of different shelters before he caught the attention of Lady’s Hope. He was a handful for a variety of reasons, but he quickly started to remind me of Burrito in that boyish charm sort of way.
I mean, just look at this face:
This is what Wilson wants to be doing most of the time:
Coincidentally, Wilson was diagnosed with heart issues after Burrito’s diagnosis. They take some of the same medication. Thankfully, at this point, neither of them are symptomatic and likely have no idea that they have an illness.
Because J.B. and I occupy the house on the property, Wilson is a part of the sanctuary too. He and (even more likely) his canine companion and savior Abbey can often be seen in their yard by the house, checking in on who’s coming up the driveway and watching all of the goings-on across the property.
And now we have a third young male who lives at the sanctuary. We’re still getting to know Nutmeg, the one steer who is part of our new cattle family. Somehow, he also has this young-at-heart innocence that was immediately apparent and has won us all over.
He also has one of the greatest hairdos of anyone I’ve ever met:
Nutmeg dutifully ambles along after his mom Betsy, adoptive aunt Honey and more feisty cousin Meredith. Being a male born to a cow genetically bred for the dairy industry, he’s a big guy, but I don’t think he realizes his size.
I don’t know how we lucked out with these three or why they all have a similar enchanting youthful demeanor, but I sure am glad I know them.
I’ll end with a look back at a couple of videos that illustrate the easy task of enticing the silliness out of Mr. B.:
A big happy birthday to Burrito tomorrow! May your heart always remain young, and may you, Wilson, and Nutmeg continue to charm anyone who takes the time to get to know you.
Wow, everyone! I am overwhelmed. It’s difficult to find the words to express my gratitude and amazement and joy at the outpouring of support for our very ambitious year-end fundraising campaign. Thankfully, Katelyn found some beautiful words yesterday.
This lofty year-end goal started with a donor who came to us with a big offer and who wanted to encourage others to give.
A few weeks ago it seemed we were very far away from matching that original donor’s $250,000 pledge. And that’s when a second donor contacted us with a $110,000 donation that would get us MUCH closer to that big goal.
There was still quite a ways to go, though. And that’s where so many others played a role. Donations came from as close by as our neighbors up the hill to as far away as Taiwan; from donors under five years old to 85 years old; from donations of $5 to $5,000; from supporters who just learned about the sanctuary to those who have followed the Cle Elum Seven since before their arrival in 2008.
You all made this pipe dream come true. We are grateful and humbled and full of hope.
It’s clear that you want this sanctuary to expand and to bring more chimpanzees HOME, and we will be putting our efforts full-hearted towards that goal in this new year.
Thank you!
This morning the sanctuary was encased in a thin layer of delicate ice.
Here’s Annie taking in the scenery:
Each tiny twig and blade of grass seemed to have suddenly discovered an independence, briefly standing on it’s own, separated from the whole:
It was clear this was going to be a very temporary state – a moment that vanished so quickly the shutter of the camera was scarcely fast enough to capture it.
The air turned warmer and the icicles began to disappear one drop at a time. As I walked around the perimeter of the chimpanzees’ outdoor habitat, I could hear cracking all around me as the trees shrugged off their icy coats.
After taking in the scene, Annie quickly decided to partake in the moment before it was gone.
Soon the sun stood boldly in its place in the sky and transformed the landscape.
Still, in the places that stubbornly hid from the sun, the ice-covered snow remained.
Missy realized that she didn’t need to venture outside herself, she could instead request that I gather handfuls of the delicacy for her.
A lesson for us all, as another year comes to end (a lesson that I’m in need of remembering): appreciate what the day has to offer and enjoy the fleeting moments before they disappear.
Speaking of fleeting moments – we are just days away from December 31st and the end of the huge year-end matching challenge! I don’t know if you’ve looked recently – we are now less than $40,000 away from reaching the goal.
I honestly am not sure what is going to happen. Can we actually reach that lofty goal?! This is where I turn towards you all and ask that question!
Jamie’s been in a bit of a mood today. She spent much of the morning pelting unsuspecting humans with snow. Eventually, though, she happily settled down in a huge wrapping paper nest and decided she’d rather eat snow than throw it (much to the humans’ relief).
