Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

On the First Day of Christmas…

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Happy holidays, everyone! No matter what (or if) you celebrate, this is the perfect time of year to take stock of everything you are grateful for in life. Here at CSNW, we are deeply grateful for the amazing support we receive from all of you. Thanks to you, we are able to provide sustainable sanctuary to all the residents in our care. This includes giving all 16 chimps creative enrichment items and, if you participated in last months online auction, you helped us do just that!

With that in mind, today is the first of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Each day we will be highlighting the items that were bid on during our recent Comfort & Joy online auction. Today, for the first day, we decided to go with Squishmallows!!!

Thank you to:

Anne M. for donating the Crab Squishmallow

Sara L. for donating the Starfish Squishmallow

Peggy V. for donating the Fish Squishmallow

Diane M. for donating Gary The Giraffe Squishmallow

Susan H. for donating the Squishy Dinosaur Pal

Thank you to these special donors and to everyone who participated!

A special thanks also to you, the person reading this blog right now. We love sharing our days with you and really look forward to your interactions and comments. You help us increase our inter-web reach and allow more people across the world to get to know and fall in love with our amazing residents. Every like, comment, and share helps get the word out to more people! So, thank you. 🙂 And happy holidays!

Lucky, hugging her groups new Squishmallows:

Annie, munching on her groups cabbage forage before inspecting the new Squishmallows:

Mave, holding her BFF Dora’s hand while also rocking a sock:

Today’s Bluebird Blue Sky:

And, if you’re wondering about the location of a certain Baby Yoda Squishmallow… it’s still in the foyer acting as Caregiver Emotional Support. 🙂

BONUS PHOTO: Sweet Annie-bird enjoying dinner last week

To Shift or Not to Shift

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Well, if you read the title you might be wondering, who didn’t shift? Or did they eventually shift? To answer your questions, yes and yes! This morning as caregiver Sofia and I were at the home-stretch of cleaning, we just needed to do the four front rooms. However, as I went to shift Jody decided she might want to stay in front room 2 and take a nap. Burrito being the gentleman that he is, did not want Jody to be alone, so he joined her on the bench. I think we all know that Burrito can’t stay still for very long, so Jody indulged him in a very lazy game of toe and ear grab. It was very sweet to watch them gently play and laugh with each other, so we shifted around them and cleaned all the other rooms. Once we were done cleaning the other rooms we gave them back access to the other front rooms, but it still didn’t look likely we would be getting that room anytime soon. I left for a few minutes and when I came back to check on them they had taken their game to the ground in front room 3. So long story short Jody and Bubba played a very sweet game and Sofia and I got to clean everything eventually!

Today is Wish List Wednesday! Today we wanted to highlight Jamie’s current favorite book (her stash is getting low):

This morning Burrito had a nice play session with Annie too:

Burrito:

Jody:

Burrito with Jody’s toes:

Willy B grooming himself:

To See a Mountain Covered With a Quilt of Snow…

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Snow, snow, snow, snow, snooooow!

Ready, set, name that movie! 🙂

If you guessed White Christmas, you would be right. Every year that I have been alive my family has watched White Christmas on Thanksgiving night. The songs tend to stick in my head throughout the month of December and today, as the snow really started to come down, I was hearing the “Snow” song on repeat. Since it’s been super cold out all day and there was no sign of the sun coming out, we decided to bring the snow in for the chimps. Check out the video for more!

A still of Jamie from today’s video:

Lucky, being her sweet self:

 

 

Winter is Here to Stay

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Today was a quiet snowy day at the chimp house. The humans were busy shoveling snow and cleaning, while the chimps ate snow and napped in their cozy nest! Everyone was so content grooming or napping that it was hard to capture photos of them. So please enjoy these photos of some cozy chimps I was able to capture. Speaking of cozy, today is the last day of our Comfort & Joy auction! The auction will be wrapping up at 6 pm PT so make sure to check on your bids or bid one last person out! We will be starting to slowly add Christmas gifts for the chimps on our wish-list soon, so be on the look out!

We got a little bit of snow last night and this morning…

Burrito sat still long enough to snap these photos:


The ever so handsome Cy:

Neggie’s silhouette eating snow:

Negra can’t wait for all of her new blankets from the Comfort & Joy auction!

Jamie getting a little shut eye:

Jamie nesting, Neggie style (blanket over head):

Mave in the middle of a big grooming party in the green house:

A Whirlwind of a Day

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Today has been a really busy day! Beyond the normal cleaning and preparing meals and enrichment, we had to shovel some snow, prepare for the incoming snowfall, and have our bi-weekly staff meeting! I was able to get some photos of Rayne for all to enjoy though!

And some bonus photos from last week!

Before the snow froze to become a giant ice cube for a bandit to steal, it was a trough full of fluffy snow!

Gordo was the first who grabbed a handful!

Followed by Willy B who shoved as much snow as his mouth could fit!

All the while Rayne took her time only picking out the best of the best of snow in the trough!

It’s amazing to think that when these two groups (before the integration) were very hesitant about snow treats! In fact, even last year they were pretty hesitant of snow. It’s always a joy when they come around on things they weren’t used to.

And finally, Negra still in her nest when I greeted her this morning!

And don’t forget Giving Tuesday! You can donate today or before the end of the year for our end of the year campaign!

Burrito’s Sense of Humor

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Burrito is a funny guy! He is always making us laugh, but from time to time his group doesn’t always think he is so funny. For example, in this video Burrito may or may not have gotten a little too wild for Foxie’s taste!

As you can see, Burrito is having so much fun playing with the giant stuffed bear. Make sure to check out the Comfort & Joy auction! There are a lot of great Squishmallows I know Burrito would love!

Please enjoy this silly video and some bonus photos!

The rare close up of Missy:

Beautiful Negra:

Jamie eating snow:

A series of Foxie photos:

 

Ghost Spotted (Totally not Burrito!)

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While I thought spooky season was behind us, I was in for a true shock today when I was cleaning the front rooms and saw a ghost.

Let me tell you exactly what happened.

I looked up briefly from sweeping and that’s when I saw it. I saw a fast moving figure pushing a giant barrel across the room. The barrels are quite heavy so whatever force was pushing it, was strong and determined. The figure was just a blur of yellow. Which is weird, because usually figures are dark, aren’t they?

I quickly ran out of the front rooms and approached the Playroom door, to get a better look at the “ghost” I had spotted. I began to question myself and wondered if this was all in my head. My heart was racing.

I rounded the corner and saw the “ghost” staring out the window, blankly. Again, the figure I was looking at was highlighter yellow in color – which is still so strange to me. Then, out of nowhere, the ghost looks at me. We make eye contact for what feels like eternity. Then, suddenly, the “ghost” starts drinking water. I also found this puzzling.

I am still frozen in fright at this point. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know who to call on the radio. My feet feel like they’ve been nailed to the ground.

Unexpectedly, the ghost turns and starts running straight at me. In that moment, I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. I wanted to scream but I couldn’t. I was completely frozen.

The “ghost” clutches the caging that separates us. They bop up and down. They hit the caging. They open their mouth and reveal their teeth to me. I will never forget those teeth.

Then, what happens next will surprise you… The “ghost” starts LAUGHING. While looking straight into my eyes, they start laughing. Can they sense my fear? Do they find my fear amusing? Are they taunting me?

Okay, I’m done with this thriller novel.

If you have watched the video already, you will see that this “yellow ghost” was indeed our friend, Burrito. He had a neon yellow blanket draped over him all morning and was being extremely silly!

If you haven’t watched the video yet, go watch it and this will all make sense!

I hope you get a chuckle out of it 😉