Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Phillippa Kassover has sponsored today for the chimpanzees. Phillippa first learned of the Cle Elum Seven earlier this year from the media coverage on the Taylor Bridge wildfire, and she suggested that we take today to celebrate new beginnings! We’re running with Phillippa’s suggestion and setting up a New Year’s Eve dinner forage for the chimps in the playroom tonight. Here’s to a happy and safe 2013!
Missy has been a complete goofball today. Every time I make eye contact with her, she darts off and starts laughing – suggesting she wants me to chase her. I’ve seen her playing with almost everyone today – so if you’ve got some energy and you’re feeling playful and extremely goofy, I know who you need to call! Ok, so maybe you can’t actually play with her, but you can donate to her team. After weeks of being in the lead, she is now in LAST place! And if my little spill doesn’t convince you, check out this adorable scene I caught between her and Negra this morning:
The chimpanzees really love snow, which is great because it just keeps falling and they never get sick of it! Check out the newsletter that was sent out today that also includes a video of the chimps enjoying snow.
Anyway, with snow comes icicles. Today J.B. noticed that there were quite a few on the building, and the sun is out now so they are melting fast.
I knocked down a few and passed them out to the chimps, but found that it was pretty tricky to pass them out AND get photos before either the chimps ran off to a hard-to-see spot with their icicle, or the icicles melted. My solution: I placed some icicles delicately on the caging so the chimpanzees would have to pull them through on their own. Missy was the first to come over, and she grabbed most of them before they melted. The other chimps were happily munching away on the ones I passed out earlier.
I know you can’t see her whole face in the picture below, but I just love how you can see her drooped lip, which means she’s relaxed and happy.
Annie loves snow:
A couple of weeks ago, Diana wrote a blog post about Jamie’s complex personality – sometimes bossy, sometimes playful, sometimes (well, usually) mischievous, but always cool. For example, she probably has the coolest head nod of any chimp I’ve ever met. In terms of chimpanzee behaviors, a head nod means pretty much exactly what it sounds like – approval. Jamie’s head nod is often almost like a chin tip you’d see between bros, almost like what you would do if you were to say, ‘sup. But that’s not all that surprising, because Jamie is pretty much cool at everything she does. I would expect no less from the boss.
Here’s another example of Jamie “playing it cool”. The other day I spotted her in a comfy nest, surrounded by boots and troll dolls – classic CSNW.
Then, she noticed a Dora the Explorer doll nearby and very slowly, very casually pulled it over to her nest.
She seemed pretty happy to have Dora with her, but certainly didn’t want anyone to know she purposely pulled a doll into her nest. In her eyes, it would be way cooler if it just “happened” to be there.
I can honestly say that Burrito puts a smile on my face every day. He has a certain mischievous yet vulnerable charm that is impossible to resist.
Burrito has a big day coming up right after the holidays. He’s turning 30 on January 6th! There are several ways you can wish the man a happy birthday: you can become his Pal and support him monthly by clicking here, join Team Burrito here, or sponsor his birthday (here) to make sure he has the best party ever.
Just 3 days ago, Debbie mentioned how we haven’t really had that much snow this year. She even said “I don’t want to jinx it”. Well, it’s been snowing almost constantly since Friday, so I think we can consider it jinxed! The humans may not be 100% excited about it, but the chimps are! Even Negra has been spending time on the hill eating snow.
