Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today is Jessie Cosier’s birthday and she chose to celebrate by sponsoring a day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees! Jessie, what a kind and generous way to celebrate your life. Thank you so much for including the chimpanzees in your special day!
From all of us here at CSNW, we hope you have a wonderful birthday! And on behalf of the chimpanzees, we send you lots of pant hoots and food squeaks!
Negra and Jody:
The sanctuary is a hub of activity today! Well, at least for the humans and Jamie Chimpanzee. Keith and Nick are still working hard on the sprinkler system. Volunteer caregiver Denice came out to work in the chimpanzees’ garden and brought along her husband, Ken, who in turn brought his backhoe to help J.B. prepare to make way for some sidewalks!
It also happens to be on the warm side today with temperatures in the upper 80’s. None of the primates here at CSNW have quite adjusted to the sudden spike in temperatures and the chimpanzees have spent much of the day splayed out in the greenhouse. Judging by Burrito, one would think it was closer to 100 degrees:
Ssooooo hot:
Why is it SO hot?!
Well, all of the chimpanzees were splayed out except Jamie, that is. After all, she is the boss and had a lot of people and projects to supervise. A popular spot from which to keep an eye on everyone was one of the windows in the front rooms and here sat Jamie, with her trusty boot in hand:
Feeling revived from a refreshing treat of carrot juice ice cubes, Burrito decided to check out the activities from the cooler front rooms as well:
It never ceases to amaze me how people come together in such selfless ways to improve the lives of the chimpanzees. Keith, Nick, Denice and Ken, (and J.B.!) thank you so much for working so hard, in the heat of this day, to make the chimpanzees’ home even better! And thank you especially for enriching Jamie’s day! And thank you to everyone who helped make this work possible, we couldn’t do it without all of our amazing supporters.
There were so many amazing pictures from Jody’s birthday celebration that it was hard to choose just a few to feature the highlights. In fact, I got so many good pictures of the chimpanzees foraging for the roses that I just had to share a few more today. Jody wasn’t the only one to savor the treat. Although she did end up with the lion’s share almost everyone got the opportunity to enjoy a flowery breakfast snack. What I find particularly intriguing is that I observed more than one chimpanzee looking at and smelling the flowers as part of the process of eating them. Now, this isn’t necessarily different from food as they often observe it and smell it before deciding whether or not it seems good enough to eat. It does seem a reasonable habit to get into if you’re going to be taking gastronomic risks. However, I still found it to be a captivating behavior to observe in my friends and certainly one that provokes further thought, if you go in for that kind of thing.
Annie
Missy
Jamie
Negra
Burrito (Okay, he’s not actually foraging for roses here but for chow instead!)
Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Diana Goodrich, Patti Sims, Lynn Williamson, and Connie Lamm in honor of the wedding of our dear friends, Keri Heniff and Bob Mark!
Diana, Patti, Lynn and Connie shared the following message for Keri and Bob:
“Congratulations on your wedding! May this be the start of a new chapter in a long and happy life together. Thanks for all you do for friends of all species!”
Keri is a volunteer caregiver here at CSNW and she and Bob are two of the kindest, most compassionate people we know. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have them as part of the CSNW family and we are so happy for them!
Keri and Bob, if you two love each other half as much as our guy, Burrito, loves his food you are going to have a great life together! Congratulations!!
In celebration of Jody’s birthday we set up a fabulous breakfast party in the greenhouse and on Young’s Hill. The weather proved amenable with gorgeous skies and little to no wind, the spread was provided by volunteer, Patti, and the party set up was made possible by the hard work of volunteers, Sandra & Katie (in addition to Patti, of course!). Breakfast consisted of pears, watermelon, and pineapple along with the fruit smoothie, all set out in grande style in the greenhouse for the chimpanzees to enjoy. We also showered flowers (lilacs & roses) on Young’s Hill, along with chow, watermelon and lettuce for an exciting forage. What better way to honor Jody than with flowers? Not only are they as beautiful as she is but they are also an edible, delectable treat for the chimpanzees! Special thanks to Terra Bella Flowers for donating the roses the chimpanzees relished today.
I had a difficult time choosing photos today, there were so many great ones. Here is the scene from the party in the greenhouse:
Missy
Jamie
Negra
Foxie
Annie
Burrito
You don’t see much of Jody in the greenhouse and that’s because she was busy making out like a bandit in the flower forage.
After such an engaging breakfast a little down time is in order.
May your Mother’s Day be full of joy and light in the company of those you love whether in spirit or in life. Happy birthday, Jody Chimpanzee!
It’s a beautiful spring day here at the sanctuary, not to mention a rare one without wind. It was already quite warm early this morning so we decided to do a chow forage on the hill for the chimpanzees after they were served their breakfast. Foxie and her troll friend were first out the door and they spent quite a bit of time traversing Young’s Hill in search of the chow. At first she held fast to her troll in her hand (I love her tongue sticking out here):
But then she decided she had some ground to cover and the troll went on her back:
It’s a good day for a stroll with one’s troll:
Today Burrito and Foxie were wrestling and chasing and just being super playful in the greenhouse. Their laughter got to be pretty loud, and I think it caught Jamie’s attention…
…She came out to see what was going on, and stepped right between Burrito and Foxie to interrupt their play.
This is a very boss-like thing to do in chimp society. We (lovingly) refer to Jamie as the “party police” because of instances like this.
But this time, she didn’t cease all playing—instead, she immediately started wrestling with Foxie and began to play “tug-o-troll” with her.
