Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
The chimpanzees spent their afternoon watching volunteers Andy, Ray, John, and Drew help J.B. construct a new play structure on the hill!
Foxie:
Missy:
What do you think it’s going to look like?
There seems to be a lot of math involved:
Does this help?
You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to see what the final structure looks like!
The chimpanzees had a pretty great day today. Foxie got a new doll this morning.
For lunch, they had a tropical party courtesy of their friends Oliver Mazner, Jeremy Mazner, and Karen Emmerman Mazner, who won a “Throw a Party for the Chimpanzees” auction item at last year’s HOOT! event. The chimpanzees had no idea there was a party in store, and they were SUPER excited when the spied the prepared spread:
Jeremy renamed the ants-on-a-log “peanut butter shooters” based on Burrito’s technique of deftly removing the peanut butter and raisins while setting the celery aside for a second go-round.
Jamie, of course, found the plate that was hidden under the barrel.
She took off with the umbrella-adorned pineapple and a sweet pepper.
The coconut was a much-admired item by Foxie.
Can you just feel Annie’s enjoyment?
Here Annie contemplates some lettuce while holding on to some specially-made carrot cake from a recipe that we got from the Center for Great Apes.
Annie really scored at this party – she found both the pineapple top and the leftover head of lettuce.
To no one’s surprise, Jamie took down the pinata and got most of the spoils.
But Negra, ever hopeful, did a check to see if Jamie had left any peanuts behind:
After the party, Jamie got to walk with the Mazners and (easily) convinced Oliver to race her multiple times around. It was still drizzling, but Jamie did not mind at all.
We hear it’s National Burrito Day…
Supporter Lisa Stuverud is celebrating a birthday today, and her husband Richard sponsored today’s day of sanctuary with this note:
Sending a “little something” for the chimps in honor of Lisa’s birthday. With every blog post we get a “whole lotta something” in return…so much love, joy and good feelings ! Thank you so much for all you do!!
Lisa and Richard are the kind of people that are often thinking of ways to bring joy to others. They’ve brought a lot of joy to the chimpanzees over the years through their support and goodwill.
Today is no exception. Lisa also sponsored the day in memory of Linda Vizzare with this heartfelt and heartwarming message:
Another year gone by without my sister-in-law Linda. She is never far from thought but especially on April 4th when I get to celebrate us on our shared birthday. Linda loved Burrito and his happy dance. We often talked about the chimps and their strength and resilience during her chemo sessions. You just never know where inspiration comes from to get through difficult times. As Burrito, Jamie, Foxie, Jody, Annie, Missy, Negra, the sanctuary and everyone connected to it continue to daily offer strength, resilience, inspiration and much joy they also keep me close to my sister-in-law who every day just hoped for 1000 more days.
There are so many gifts that this job provides, and one of the most significant gifts is being able to honor others. So thank you, Richard and Lisa, for giving us this gift.
Burrito is certainly not one to hide his joy. Here he is in mid-dance:
and here he is really excited about something:
and here he is just hanging out with his pal Foxie while eating some corn:
Friends make everything more enjoyable. ❤
While volunteers Chelsea, Erin, and Kailie were finishing up the big clean of the playroom today, I went in search of some chimpanzees.
I found all seven of them on the “top bunk” of the structure in the greenhouse. I was able to watch them for twenty minutes or so as they rested and groomed. There were frequent switches of grooming partners, with everyone receiving and giving attention at various times and then sitting quietly grooming themselves or dozing off.
It’s incredibly heartening to witness this rag-tag bunch interacting like a true chimpanzee family group. They definitely don’t always get along (no primates do, if we’re being honest), but these times of togetherness are a big part of who they have become. Even when they were focusing on themselves, they were just inches away from one other.
Here are a few photos of Missy and Jamie:
I had a lot of thoughts as I was watching Missy climbing on top of the roof of the tower structure today while I was also enjoying the gorgeousness of the day, so I made this video.
Negra knows how to make a good thing last.
