Yesterday after playroom cleaning, instead of distributing the clean blankets around the room, we put most of them in a big pile. We figured that the chimpanzees would stop by the heap, take what they needed to build their nests, and move on. Jody, though, had different ideas. She made a beeline for the blanket mountain and immediately went to work.
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Imaginary play
This morning, while Elizabeth and I were cleaning the playroom, Annie was sitting in the window. She playfully opened her mouth for a “drink of water” through the glass. She’s not the only chimpanzee at CSNW that we have witnessed play this game. We caught a short clip of it:
This reminded me of something I saw, but failed to get on camera a few weeks ago. Jamie was sitting on this small toy horse and scooting along the playroom floor. She then lifted her leg up high and over in an exaggerated dismount. Two things stood out to me- the first was how interesting it is to me that chimps engage in this type of pretend play, and second- how truly little we know about the chimps’ histories. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing when she “dismounted”. We suspect she was a “pet” prior to the lab, but was she raised by a cowboy (hence the boot obsession?), did she just see this on TV?, or was she taught to ride a horse at some point? We may never know, but it was a fascinating moment none the less.
Here’s a photo of the horse, for scale. 🙂
Foxie
I was just looking through some photos Diana took yesterday, and I had to share this one:
Happy Birthday, Kathy Cochran
Jeannine, Mike and Daniela sponsored today in honor of Kathy Cochran’s birthday. Kathy has done quite a bit for the sanctuary, including the design of both our Year One and Year Two books, the creation of our DVD/CD, display signs for both of our auctions, the donation of original artwork and a very generous financial donation of $5,000 towards Young’s Hill during our 2010 Out of the Box auction.
So, Kathy, today is a big happy birthday from all of us as well as Jeannine, Mike and Daniela!
Hope you have a pant-hoot-worthy day!
Burrito turns 28
Planning birthday parties for the chimpanzees can sometimes be a challenge. We try to keep things creative, and come up with ideas that are uniquely suited to the honoree’s interests. For some of the chimps, this can be tricky. How do you plan something new and exciting for Jamie, the girl who’s seen and done it all? Burrito, on the other hand, is extraordinarily easy to please. The one thing he loves above all else is food.
For Burrito’s birthday last year, we did away with our three-meal-a-day routine in favor of very frequent snacks. He was so delighted that we decided to do it again this year. Here is today’s meal schedule (we may have gone a little overboard, but what’s a party without a little indulgence?):
8:30 a.m.: apples, oranges, fruit smoothie
10:00 a.m.: sweet potatoes, grapes, cabbage
12:00 p.m.: leeks
1:00 p.m.: bananas
2:00 p.m.: peanut butter sandwiches, tangerines
3:30 p.m.: pears, avocados, pineapple
In addition to all of the delicious food, the chimps really enjoyed checking out their presents from friends Robbi and Dick. It really has been a day of riches.
Play with me
This morning Jamie seemed to be feeling a little ignored. She displayed a couple of times, probably in an attempt to draw some attention to herself, but volunteer Denice and I were busy cleaning the front rooms, and the other chimpanzees didn’t seem too impressed. She eventually convinced Foxie to play with her by “stealing” one of her trolls. Once she had Foxie’s undivided attention, she proceeded to drag her around the playroom by her feet.
New Year’s feast
Yesterday the chimpanzees had an exciting feast to celebrate another year of sanctuary.
