Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Smiles All Around

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There are many amazing benefits to working or volunteering with the chimps (and cattle) here at CSNW. Don’t get me wrong – the days can be challenging (Anthony spoke about that wonderfully here), but it’s not lost on me how lucky I am that I get to come to work and hang out with 16 of my best friends… And the humans are pretty cool, too. 🙂

Like all humans, though, all of us have good days and bad days. In those moments where we are just feeling down, we are reminded of another perk of this job – we can (usually) rely on our chimp friends to get us smiling! Whether it’s Gordo’s bunny hop, Lucky’s excited greetings, Negra’s bed head, Annie’s bird noises, or a plethora of other small moments- no matter what our mood when we get to work, we often leave feeling content, happy, and fulfilled. I hope the daily blog gives you those feelings, too!

Missy, enjoying the brisk sunshine today out on Young’s Hill:

Rayne having a lil’ nap in the Riverview Greenhouse:

Zoomed out of Rayne’s lil nap- oh, hello Cy!

Negra looking past me to see what’s for breakfast:

Another of Missy outside, because I couldn’t pick just one:

Lucky resting inside while her caregivers cleaned:

Jamie watching Burrito run out onto the hill:

Gordo enjoying his breakfast avocado:

Hello, handsome Cy:

Annie spying on her neighbors whilst sporting the latest fashion:

Cheers to the Goofy Moments

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No two days of sanctuary are ever the same. When you spend your time caring for amazingly intelligent, complex, and witty individuals you never know what is going to come your way. Some moments are difficult and some are relaxed, but there’s little goofy moments sprinkled throughout them all.

Over the last few months I’ve been collecting as many of these moments as I can, but this is just a small snapshot since I had to mostly rely on the security cameras. Unfortunately, the odds of us having our phones out recording when we spray ourselves in the face with a hose (just an example) is slim to none.




At the end of the day, all moments of sanctuary (whether difficult, easy, or somewhere in between) are precious and are moments I wish could be captured for forever. I guess that’s one of the perks about having a daily blog- along with connecting with our amazing supporters, it gives us the opportunity to record in web-history moments from our days here. Thanks for that. 🙂




Dora and Mave, or Mora, engaged in a grooming session:




Beautiful, sweet Lucky:




Last night, staff and volunteers went out for dinner to celebrate Anthony’s tenure here. While not everyone was able to make it or is pictured in the photo, it’s always a special moment hanging out with everyone in the outside world:




Two Most Likely Friends


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To start, if you haven’t read Anthony’s final blog from Monday, I would stop here and go read his blog first. He very beautifully wrote about his experiences in sanctuary and the new journey he is about to start, but he also described the life of a caregiver. To be a caregiver is a true honor, but it also comes with many challenges. There are moments like the one I am going to write about today that make everything worth the hard parts, but then you have days of watching your friends fight and there is nothing you can do to help (which might just be the hardest part of the job). I digress though, I encourage you to read his blog!


For me personally, watching chimps who struggle socially develop strong relationships with other chimps is one of the most extraordinary parts of the job. Facilitating chimp introductions may have been one of the most stressful points in my career, but it was also one of the most rewarding as well. Now that they are a fully integrated group, I catch amazing moments every day between Honey B and Dora in particular, both with other individuals in their group and with each other. I feel so immensely proud of them. With their own quirks, they each left us unsure of how they would integrate in the very beginning of the introduction stage. This is not a new story I am telling; many of you who follow the blog know that we had a few individuals that we referred to as “wild cards.” What I didn’t expect was for Dora to become Miss Popular or for Honey B to sometimes be the cool, calm and collected one in the group. One might even go as far as saying that she may occasionally be a peace-keeper, and has developed strong relationships with multiple people in her group!  This is just proof that chimps really do belong in larger groups with more social stimulation. I am not exactly sure what I am getting at today, but I am just really, really happy for them!


It is not so surprising that Honey B let the sweet, tiny, but also mighty Dora into her social circle. They did live with each other at Wildlife Waystation at some point, so they were not wholly unfamiliar. As Terry knows, however, it doesn’t always matter if you have history; you still have to put the work in for a friendship! (Fortunately, Honey B and Terry are good friends now.) While Terry had to work hard for Honey B’s affection, Dora did not. What a wild experience it must be to think that you won’t ever see or live with someone again and then end up back together. I hope you enjoy this video of Honey B and Dora, the two most likely friends :).


Bonus photo of Foxie:




Wednesdays Book Club


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Though Jamie and Cy may be in different groups they had the same idea today, Wednesday is for reading.


Jamie’s current must reads are:


1. I’m Lucy by Marian Brickner – (a classic)


And a sequel to the Lucy bonobo book


2. Bonobo Lucy Grows up by Marian Brickner


Cy’s new favorite read is a magazine:


¡Hola!


Other than book club, it was a pretty quiet day, which is why it was the perfect day for reading!


Cy could not put this magazine down:






Jamie with both Lucy books:




Bonus photos!


Burrito:






Rayne:




Annie and Missy playing on the bench in front room 2:




And I will leave you with a series of Negra photos:












Terry: The Whole Tooth and Nothing but the Tooth


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Another busy day in the Chimp House! Unfortunately, Terry had to take a trip to the clinic today for a fractured tooth.


Fortunately, we were able to have a skilled group of individuals come to the sanctuary to help with Terry’s procedure. In addition to our vet Dr. Erin and our vet assistant Sofía, we were grateful to have the assistance of Dr. Dan Whitemarsh of Cle Elum Dental Clinic and Mekenzie, CRNA for this procedure! Also a special thank you to Sofía’s aunt Maria A. Loza, DMD, MS for consulting with us about Terry’s tooth!




Through x-rays we were able to determine his canine was completely fractured below the gum line. Dr. Erin opted to extract the broken fragment and clean up the gum to where it could be sutured back together. Out of all the outcomes, this was a good one that will lead to the fastest recovery for him. If all goes well, he can go back to his group sooner! It was exciting to determine, after consulting with other veterinarians and dentists that have worked on chimps, that we could resolve the issue without extracting the entire tooth root. We will keep a close eye on his healing process and do more work if needed, but we are currently happy with the results. Since Terry was already under anesthesia, we also collected all the medical information we could. He got a full dental x-ray, body x-ray, ultrasound, and blood work profile, among other things.




Recently, we received a grant from the Ruth Foundation, a legacy of the Gary E. Millard Family Foundation, for some new medical equipment. With that money we were able to purchase a dental cleaning machine and a dental x-ray, which up until now we had been borrowing. We can’t express how amazing it was to do a full dental cleaning with our new dental machine and x-ray system. We are also awaiting delivery of a new patient monitor, funded by the same grant, which uses new technology for capturing blood oxygen saturation – something that can be difficult to capture in chimps.


Using our new Dental x-ray:




Terry getting his teeth polished by Sofía with our new dental cleaning equipment:




Dr. Whitemarsh and Sofía cleaning Terry’s teeth:




Just finishing up the teeth cleaning with Dr. Erin (left), Sofía (middle), Mekenzie (right):




Dr. Whitemarsh needed to get back to his own clinic, but with the power of technology Dr. Erin was able to consult with him over FaceTime video chat:




Dr. Erin suturing Terry up:




Dr. Erin using the ultrasound:




Caregiver Grace observing and helping out in the clinic:




Dr. Erin (left) doing an eye exam on Terry and Mekenzie (right) assisting:




Sofía doing a blood glucose test:




After stitching him up and doing as many health assessments we could, Terry was ready to go back into the recovery room. He had quite the crowd waiting for him; Terry is a very popular guy! 🙂


Mave, Honey B, and Cy watching Terry come back into his room:




Rayne monitoring Dr. Erin:




Before Terry woke up Dr. Erin was able to do some laser therapy on Terry’s mouth. Laser therapy is very cool, it can help with pain, inflammation, and healing!




Terry did great during the procedure and is recovering very well, just a little sleepy.


Sweet Terry snoozing after a long morning:




 


 


Favoritism


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Supporters often ask us caregivers if we have “favorites” among the sixteen chimpanzees who reside at the sanctuary. I refuse to answer.


Any caregiver worth their salt responds to this common line of inquiry with a prudent, noncommittal reply. It would be irresponsible for us to grow more attached to one chimp than the others, compromising our efforts to maintain objectivity when discussing important Chimp House matters. Each individual is unique and lovable in their own way, and we caregivers form special relationships with all of them. If you’re digging for evidence of favoritism, you’d be better off asking a parent to reveal their favorite child.


Even if I did have a favorite chimpanzee to work with and care for, it’s not like I could ever admit that… especially not on the blog!


On a completely unrelated note, I’ve included, like, sixty-eight photos of Honey B for no reason in particular.




    


      


  


   




     




   


     


    


   


    


    


     


Sunday Sillies


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Some days we show up to work with a full on blog concept, ready to go! Some days, we show up and hope something is presented to us throughout the morning that we can write about. And some days we have a blog idea ready, but the chimps decide to do something that we just absolutely have to share. Today was one of those days. 🙂 While we cleaned this morning, Burrito had all his charm on and was caught playing with everyone – even Jamie and Annie! Check out the video for more.


Terry:


 


Negra:




Sweet Jody, resting and yawning in the front rooms:


    


Gordo:




Dora:




Cy:




Burrito: