Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Betsy’s Bovine Birthday Bash!

July 20, 2021 by Chad de Bree

It’s a week of celebrations! Yesterday we celebrated Gordo’s 33rd birthday. Today we are celebrating Betsy’s 14th birthday!

If you remember from last year, we had tried to do something special for the cattle on their birthdays, which usually didn’t end the way we wanted them to.

Today, Kelsi and I decided we wanted to try again. We took the service Gator up to the barn to grab some COB (corn, oats, and barely) and alfalfa pellets to bring to sweet Betsy to celebrate her day.

As we drove onto the pasture to meet them, Betsy was the first to be alert to something new in the back of the Gator. When she realized what it was, she wanted all of it. We were able to make sure Nutmeg, Honey, and Meredith were also able to get some.

We all truly love the cattle here! Every one is uniquely special to us. We often look back at their lives and get into “Awww” mode when we find some of the old photos of their time at Farm Sanctuary. And since this particular page is titled “Betsy: Dairy Survivor, Reality TV Star, Devoted Mother, and Beloved Friend” I thought today would be a good day to share it.

Happy Birthday, Betsy! Here’s to 14 years, and many more to come!

Eating with her family from the back of the Gator.

And as one final message, Diana wants you all to know that she hears you about wanting a better blog commenting system, so she’s currently looking into options. If there are other websites that you comment on that have the features you like, feel free to contact Diana ([email protected]) as she investigates possibilities. And don’t forget to subscribe to the blog the new way if you haven’t already. Thanks!

Happy Birthday, Gordito!

July 19, 2021 by Sofia Castro-Loza

For some, birthdays are just another day, but here at the sanctuary we go all out to make sure birthdays are a big hit for everyone. Today we are celebrating that one of the Lucky Six, Gordo, turns 33 years old. This is his first birthday party celebration while living in the sanctuary and we had to make sure that it met all of his expectations. Gordito, because honestly he is not hefty at all and it sounds a bit more gentle has slowly come out of his shell and has shown to be a very sweet chimp, and has also proven that his name matches his personality in the sense that he is a VERY food motivated guy. For meals he will get his serving of food and then come back to ask for more as if he had gotten nothing, but nice try buddy we are trained to keep count!

Today’s party included a forage in the playrooms of oatmeal cups topped with grapes and shaved coconuts, banana leaves for browse and a tropical feel, and whole mangoes for lunch. I don’t know who was more excited about mangoes being on the lunch menu, the chimps or me. They always remind me of being back home and picking them from the huge tree in my grandmas backyard, or sitting under said tree with my cousins always with an eye out to not get hit in the head with a falling mango if the wind picked up. Anyways, here are some photos of the party!

Smoothie/juice bars have nothing on our caregivers ability to make snacks look amazingly appetizing

Once the chimps got access into the party area Gordo was the first one in and went straight towards the oatmeal cups

Gordo getting his lunch mango from Caregiver Anthony

Cy showing how a mango should be left after being properly eaten

Lucky enjoying her oatmeal cup

Dora with her oatmeal cup

And just in time for Gordo’s birthday, you now have the opportunity to become his Chimpanzee Pal (or a Pal to any of the 16 chimpanzees who call the sanctuary home)! Each of the “Lucky Six” are now available to sponsor through our Chimpanzee Pal program, so if you’d like to learn more just click here – OR – if you’re inspired to become a Bovine Buddy in time for Betsy’s birthday tomorrow, click here!

For the myriad of ways in which you each choose to support our chimpanzee and bovine families, it means the world to us and we could not be more grateful to you!

Morning Greetings

July 18, 2021 by Sam Jones

Even though today is Sunday, it’s my “Monday” and I always look forward to coming back from my weekend and seeing the chimps again. We are so lucky as caregivers to be able to greet and be greeted by these amazing individuals. I love seeing how they all spend their mornings and what we can find them up to.

Some mornings are full of greetings and today was one of those days. Jamie was in a playful mood and wanted to play chase! We ran back and forth a couple times and then it was on to a short game of chase with Burrito. As everyone knows, he is ALWAYS ready to play. Negra was still lounging in her nest in the Greenhouse, but sweet Jody was waiting to greet me. As I moved along, Honey B was ready for a long game of chase! She wanted to play chase from the ground floor up to their Mezzanine. The Mezzanine is located above their front rooms and involves us climbing a ladder to get to the top level. Since I had to take the long route, Honey B would patiently wait until I got to the top and then would run back down.

As I was walking around the outside of building, Terry was excitedly waiting to say hi from a distance. Cy gave me a quick greeting from above, but went back to reading his morning magazine.

Each morning before we let the chimps onto Young’s Hill we walk around outside of the fence line to make sure everything still looks intact. Not only are we greeted by the chimps in the morning, but sometimes the cattle as well! I found them along my walk this morning and here are some photos.

Honey

Betsy

Nutmeg

Meredith

Here are some photos from the rest of the day!

Missy on the hill.

Jamie making sure things are in order.

Burrito making everyone’s heart melt.

Honey B always watching.

Willy B enjoying his night bag.

Willy B with his PVC peanut butter tube.

A photo of Rayne from last week using a box as a foot rest.

Gordo making good use of the same box.

Jody wadging a cattail

July 17, 2021 by Diana

This video (above) reminded me of someone eating a corn dog at a ball game, though I don’t really go to ball games and I have no idea if they still have corn dogs.

In any case, Jody definitely was enjoying her cattail wadge while keeping an eye on the neighbors today.

For more on wadging, check out this blog post from Anna from a few years ago or this one, also from Anna, with some photos of Jody wadging pineapple skin.

Today is the first day of sending out the blog to both the old and the new lists of subscribers. If you are new to the blog, welcome!!

If you signed up to the new list the other day, you should be receiving notice of this blog post from both WordPress and Salsa. Check your spam folders just in case!

Note: if you have previously unsubscribed from our e-newsletter or other communications, you may not receive the email. Get in contact with me if you have any questions or issues: [email protected]

I’ll be troubleshooting this week, so you might not receive blog posts through Salsa (the new way) everyday, but my goal is to have it all worked out by the end of the week.

If you haven’t yet signed up to the new subscription, you should be able to do that on either the right side or below this page (scroll down).

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Happy moments

July 15, 2021 by Anna

Here are just a few of the highlights from this week!

In case you missed it, make sure to check out Diana’s blog from earlier today. We wouldn’t want you to miss any of our future blogs!

Important Change to Blog – Action Needed by You

July 15, 2021 by Diana

Attention all blog subscribers – we are changing the subscription gateway for the blog and you need to sign up in a different place to continue to receive blog posts. We won’t be making the switch immediately, and there will be some days of overlap, but you may as well sign up now to be sure you won’t miss anything!

All you have to do is enter your email address into this box and click the Subscribe button below.

That’s it!

Thank you so, so much for following this blog. It continues to be an incredibly uplifting way for us to be able to share the lives of the chimpanzees and bovines and other sanctuary goings-on with you and also to get to know some of you through this experience.

It’s very motivating for me personally to read your comments and know how much you care about everyone here at the sanctuary.

p.s. Don’t worry – you’ll be getting a real blog post from Anna later today!

World Chimpanzee Day 2021!

July 14, 2021 by Chad de Bree

If we look straight and deep into a chimpanzee’s eyes, an intelligent self-assured personality looks back at us. If they are animals, what must we be?”

-Frans de Waal

Today is World Chimpanzee Day!

Several organizations within the sanctuary, zoo, education, and conservation worlds came together to create a day to honor our closest living relatives and to use the day to spread awareness of issues they face both in the wild and captivity.

July 14th was chosen as the honorary day because it was on this day in 1960, Jane Goodall first stepped foot in Tanzania to study chimpanzees. Though she had received backlash at first, her discoveries forced researchers to look at chimpanzees differently, and not just as another animal. From then, we have begun to truly see just how close of a living relative we are.

There are many things you can do to be an advocate for chimpanzees. You can donate to your favorite conservation organization, share your favorite sanctuary on social media, talk about your favorite chimpanzee to family, discuss what is a good social media post is and what is bad to friends, and the list goes on! To find out more about World Chimpanzee Day and how you can help, please check out World Chimpanzee Day!

We are truly honored as caregivers to know the 16 chimpanzees who call Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest home!