Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Tiny’s Big Adventure

by

Foxie may be tiny (it’s even one of our terms of endearment for her), but her courageous and adventurous spirit are limitless. And while it may take her awhile to warm up to new things, once she makes up her mind to do something, she does it.

If you’ve been following the chimps for awhile you’ve probably seen Foxie and her dolls scaling the highest points on the structures of Young’s Hill and even bravely (and nerve-wrackingly) traversing the slippery metal roof of one. But the one structure we humans haven’t seen her conquer yet, despite numerous attempts, is the Twister. She approaches it with determination and cautiously climbs part way up and every time we watch with bated breath wondering, “Is today the day she’s going to the top?!” But then as she gazes up at the very top to the crow’s nest, she decides she’s not quite ready and climbs back down, moving on to other adventures. Today, that changed.

Jody and Foxie headed up the hill with what appeared to be a sense of determination. Foxie was the first to start climbing the Twister and paused at her usual stopping point.

And then in a flash Jody headed past Foxie all the way up to the top of the Twister which seemed to bolster Foxie’s confidence.

And then it began. Foxie taking slow, cautious steps higher and higher toward her friend, Jody, who was waiting at the top. I could barely contain my excitement for Foxie (as those on the other end of the radio can attest to with my frequent shouts and squeals). I kept expecting her to turn back at any moment, but she kept going.

Once she reached the crow’s nest she found a spot to sit, hanging on precariously and appearing a little uneasy. By this time, Jody had descended the other side and was sitting on a nearby log below watching Foxie. I thought Foxie might decide that was high enough for one day.

Nope! All the way to the top of the crow’s nest!! I raised my arms in the air cheering for her and giving her a head nod which she returned along with a playful thump of approval.

This. Face!!

Foxie spent a couple minutes from her new view point and then began trying to figure out how to get back down. First she attempted to go over the side:

Then reassessed the situation and went back through the crow’s nest:

Her leg would swing around as she precariously attempted to find footing she felt comfortable with, but then she steadily made her way back down:

Yeah, Fox!

While Jody was waiting for Foxie she picked herself a quick pine tree snack and then rushed over to meet Foxie at the bottom of the Twister:

And in classic Jody style, she escorted her brave friend all the way back to the greenhouse, continually stopping along the way to reassure Foxie and make sure was following her, like the good friend she is:

I realize some of you might be thinking, “Yeesh, she’s a chimp! That’s what chimps are supposed to do! What’s all the hullabaloo?!” But when you consider the very small world in which Foxie, and all the chimps, lived for so long and that every ounce of their courage was needed just to get through each day, to get through the most unimaginable of losses, it’s nothing short of miraculous to see the healing and leaps of bravery that continue to occur almost ten years later. And it makes your heart burst right out of your chest seeing all their innate courage finally getting to be used to expand and enrich their world, their hearts and their spirits in whichever way is meaningful to them.

Rainy Sundays

by

Well, today turned out to be a mostly rainy day. The chimps took advantage and tried to recuperate after the crazy party yesterday! Jamie and I got to fit a few walks in luckily, but otherwise the chimps spent their day playing lazy games of chase, napping, and grooming.

Burrito took a mid-day nap on the floor:

Jamie found most of the Playroom forage (big nuts) and snacked on it for a while:

Later, Jamie took a nice relaxing nap with her boot:

Annie also took a minute to lay down and rest:

Jody decided to keep it pretty low key:

Jody and Annie spent a lot of their day grooming and laying in any warm sunshine they could find:

Tropical Party on a Rainy Day

by

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.

 

Rainy day puzzles

by

A rainy day like today seemed like a good time to introduce the chimps to a new enrichment food puzzle. Before we fully integrate a puzzle into the chimps’ enrichment schedule, we often do a trial run where we try and gauge the chimps’ level of interest in the puzzle, as well as how difficult it is for them to complete. We ultimately want the puzzle to be really time consuming for them (to keep their minds and bodies busy), but not so much that they give up and stop trying. Today we put out a few bath towel knots that had walnuts tied into them. To really make the puzzle challenging, the towels were dipped in water and frozen prior to the chimps receiving them. All throughout the rest of our cleaning this morning, we heard the thumping sounds of the chimps working on their puzzles in the loft of the playroom. I think we can consider this trial run a success, minus the fact that I didn’t manage to get any photos to document the event. Once we get photos, we will add these Frozen Towel Knots to the Enrichment Database on our website. If you haven’t checked out the new look of the database on our beautifully redone website, I highly recommend it!

Because no blog is complete without photos, here is a selection from the vault:

Burrito:

Jody:

Negra:

In Celebration of Lisa Stuverud and Linda Vizzare

by

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. ❤

A burst of happiness

by

When some of the chimps are feeling a bit silly and relaxed, they have this little routine they do where they lay on their back and flail their arms and legs in the air and side to side for a few seconds. It’s sort of like a shiver of joy, contentment and energy runs through them.
Here’s Foxie’s upside down moment she had this morning on Young’s Hill:

With that out of her system, Foxie and Dora continued their day together: