Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

chimpanzee

Late summer days

by 9 Comments

Typically September is our guaranteed best weather of the year. Well, in our opinions. 🙂 The heat dies down along with the winds, mornings and evenings are cool, but the days sunny and warm. The green of summer is becoming flecked with gold, red and orange. It’s that perfect blend of summer and autumn. The fifth season, betwixt and between. But this year, September has been a little more cold and rainy than usual. Yesterday was so unexpectedly cold! Today we’re back to bluebird skies and a warm sun despite a brisk, damp morning. The chimps have been full of joy and shenanigans all day. Especially Foxie. She’s been full of pirouettes, backflips, cartwheels from the top to the bottom of the caging, playing chase, and just being the most joyful being. Even the normally serious boss lady, Jamie, has been extra silly and happy. Here are some of the things the chimps got up to today:

Annie and Missy were first to the top of a structure after breakfast to take in the view:

Negra enjoyed a moment in the sun:

Foxie decided to play Spider-chimp and take the more adventurous way up the newest structure:

Foxie was sneering all the way back to the greenhouse because she was annoyed by the tall grass in her face and even more so, her nemeses…the grasshoppers! Oh, she hates those grasshoppers!

And some bonus photos from a few days ago of Jody luxuriating in the turtle pool, because obviously you had to see these:

A snake in the garden

by 7 Comments

The intensity of a snake alarm call is usually proportional to the snake’s size and proximity to the chimps. Basic alarm calls mean a snake has been spotted. Screams mean it is an imminent threat. But you have to recalibrate your understanding of snake calls when Annie is involved because to her, every snake is an imminent threat.

Even if it is a tiny garter snake, taking a nap on a grape vine well outside of the chimps’ greenhouse enclosure.

Missy

by 7 Comments

Missy came alarmingly close to never making it out of the research lab. She almost died while recovering from a hysterectomy shortly before moving to the sanctuary. Missy is so full of life these days that it’s easy to forget that if things had played out just a little differently, we never would have had the opportunity to get to know and love her. What a loss it would have been.

Missy is who we all want to be. She is fearless, cool, and adventurous. She’s strong and athletic, with a penchant for daredevilry. She has a silly sense of humor and is fiercely loyal to her friends. Though she does on occasion honor us with her attention, she usually prefers chimp company. And that’s fine with us – we’re just glad she’s in our world.

Happy Birthday, Jeff!

by 1 Comment

Today was sponsored by Dana Kennedy in honor of Jeff Kropp’s birthday weekend! Dana, thank you SO much for including the chimpanzees in your weekend of celebration and for all you do to make a lasting difference in their lives!

Jeff, we hope you have the best birthday yet! Thanks so much for sharing it with the chimps! Burrito would probably say he hopes you get to eat a lot of good food. A LOT of good food. 🙂

Thank you, Kathleen!

by 2 Comments

The chimpanzees and humans here have an amazing friend in Kathleen Corby, who sponsored a day of sanctuary full of love and gratitude today!  Kathleen lives quite a ways away, but she is ever present in heart and spirit here, and in the lives of each of the chimps, every day. We’re all lucky to know her. She makes the world a better place just by sharing her special heart. She shared this beautiful and much appreciated message:

“I want to sponsor today to say “Thank You” to everyone at CSNW. Thank you for all you do every single day to ensure that Annie, Missy, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody and Negra live out the rest of lives surrounded by HOPE, compassion, family, friends, comfort, freedom of choice, and LOVE! You have given them a true HOME and that is the magic of SANCTUARY. But beyond all this, you have also placed their precious lives and courageous souls in our hearts and hands and for this I am truly grateful. My life is richer because I have come to know and love the Cle Elum Seven. Thank you.”

From our hearts, thank you, Kathleen! We so appreciate you and are grateful to have you as part of our chimp family.

Annie:

Burrito:

Foxie:

Jamie:

Jody:

Missy:

Negra:

Annie’s Birthday Bash

by 16 Comments

What a day of celebrating beautiful, dear, sweet Annie! We decided to have the party on Young’s Hill, the chimps’ 2-acre outdoor habitat and it was complete with a chimp favorite, watermelon bowls filled with lettuce, blueberries, cherry tomatoes, onions, and cabbage, and a new treat of banana leaves filled with roasted sweet potatoes and onions and leftover watermelon, and beautiful organic sunflowers strewn about!

Aren’t these amazing?! They’re bigger than Kelsi! 🙂 We have the best volunteers who found a recipe for wrapping good stuff in squares of the leaves and another who found them in Seattle for us! Something completely new for the chimps!

Here’s the birthday lady opening her banana leaf packet:

Jody was actually first onto the hill and was very excited to make it back with two watermelon bowls! I caught her mid-blink – sorry Jo! – and food squeaking with delight:

Negra’s approach to the forage was to wait for Jody to bring her haul back to the greenhouse and promptly try to take it!:

Jody kindly let her have one. That said, when Jody came back later with another one she wasn’t so willing to give it up which the Queen wasn’t too happy about, though she did get what Jody couldn’t shovel in fast enough. Oh, Neggie:

Burrito found a bowl for himself and started to make his way back to the greenhouse food squeaking all the way. But he stopped short when he saw Jody and Negra near the raceway and decided to try and play it cool so as not to attract their attention (or probably more specifically, Negra’s). You can see how excited he is by his hair standing on end (pilo-erect):

Of course, he couldn’t wait too long before taking some bites:

Jamie’s tactic was to collect everything she wanted and put it in a good place to return to when she was ready:

Missy:

Annie and Jody out for more:

And Foxie! She was way out on one of the structures by herself when she found a watermelon bowl.

Then…Oh. My. Heart! We could hear Foxie food squeaking with excitement when all of a sudden she just couldn’t contain herself! When chimpanzees are overwhelmed with excitement or fear they will often express a facial gesture known as a “fear grimace.” This is what Foxie is doing here, but she was SUPER excited. Usually others chimps are nearby and they reassure one another, but Foxie just kept looking at us from afar as if to say, “Do you see this??!! Watermelon bowls!!! I just can’t…” We love how excited the chimpanzees get over something as seemingly simple as fresh food. It never seems to get old for them and certainly seeing their joy never gets old for us.

Happy 44th, Annie! May all your days and years ahead be filled with more love, joy and adventure than you ever imagined. We love you so very much!

Happy Birthday, Annie!

by 4 Comments

The chimps’ good friend, Monica Best, sponsored today in honor of beautiful, beloved Annie! Annie, unbelievably, turns 44 today and naturally, we’ve been planning her celebration for days!

Monica, thank you as always for holding the chimps in your heart and for all you do to add to their lives! We appreciate you remembering Annie on her special day!

As I type this, the chimp house is singing with Annie’s classic “bird-noises” she makes by whistling through her hands and she’s washing her hair and face with water in her classic morning routine. Annie, 44 never looked so good! We have an exciting day ahead so check back later to see the festivities!

We love you so much, Annie! Your courageous, kind, gentle, goofy, endearing, full-of-moxie soul is an inspiration every day. May this, and each birthday ahead, be the best of birthdays yet!

Annie wouldn’t quite be Annie without her love for her best friend, Missy: