Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
I am officially giving the MVP award to Foxie, who has been making it farther and farther everyday on Young’s Hill. She’s gotten some encouragement and motivation from her friends, but today I put out some pieces of pineapple as a forage, and that seemed to be enough incentive for her to make it almost twice as far as she’s gone in the last few weeks! She made it almost all the way to the first platform. Yay, Foxie!
Foxie is our resident acrobat here at the sanctuary. She’s always hanging upside down or doing pirouettes, and loves to engage us in active games where she will do all sorts of different gymnastics. Jamie, as many of our regular blog readers know, is the resident trickster—it’s appropriate that her birthday is on Halloween (just a couple weeks away!)
Watch Foxie being a goof and wait for Jamie to interrupt…
I have no idea what was going through Foxie’s mind as she walked around the entire perimeter of Young’s Hill on that first day out, but since then, she has been extremely reluctant to go back out. Everyday she tries, but as soon as she gets about 20 feet from the doorway she freezes in her tracks. Obviously the whole experience of being outdoors is overwhelming to her.
Her friends have been encouraging her to go out and to remain out once she is there. But they know that she is scared and they don’t try to push her beyond her comfort zone.
The other day I saw something amazing. Missy came out of the tunnel with a troll in her mouth, and Foxie was trailing behind her. Missy doesn’t care for trolls, so I thought that perhaps Missy was using the troll as a lure to try to help Foxie get outside. And in a way, she was..but it was Foxie that initiated it! Since then, I’ve seen Foxie go through this routine three times with Missy. Foxie begins by stomping around the greenhouse, which is an invitation for someone to go out to the hill with her. When Missy joins her, they both pause and Foxie delicately hands over her troll. She then waits for Missy and the troll to lead the way up the hill.
On day 1 of Young’s Hill, we saw a lot of wrestling from Annie and Missy (shocking, I know!), but since then, we haven’t seen a whole lot of playing on the hill, most likely because there has been so much to do and explore out there that they just haven’t “had the time”. Over the last few days, however, I’ve been noticing them get more and more playful. Chase has been a favorite game lately (apparently, even Gators make good chase partners!). I’m sure after watching the construction all summer, the chimps (or Missy and Jamie at least) have just been waiting for the opportunity to get up to a full speed run! But with 2-acres to explore, even just walking around is such amazing exercise for them. I’m sure they are sleeping like babies at night!
Today I was watching the chimps running around on the hill. Jamie and Missy were way in the distance. Missy was sitting on the log bridge up top and I couldn’t even see Jamie! Jody was sitting under the hammock and Foxie was running out and then back in over and over. Jackie hopped into the Gator (our farm utility vehicle) to try and find Jamie, and Missy started to play chase with her. Missy gave up quickly but Jamie was way more excited about it.
Sometimes when we play chase with the chimps, they will fake us out—meaning they will run one direction and then abruptly turn and go the other direction, and we have to try and catch up to them. Well, this is a lot harder to do when you have to turn around a Gator on a steep hill! You’ll see Jamie playing this “fake out” game with Jackie in the beginning of the video.
We would love to follow the success of the Seattle Out of the Box 2011 event by reaching our $20,000 goal for the online auction. We have $3,826 to go in just six hours and 30 minutes. So far we have $1,192 toward the on-site medical clinic through the online auction. This is the best way to give back to the chimps – you can donate in any amount. Do it for Negra!
Although several were snatched up fast, there are still plenty of items available to bid, including a five-night stay at the Ihilani Resort in O’ahu, a private tour of the sanctuary that includes dinner with the staff and an overnight stay, limited edition signed prints of the Philip Herman illustration The Chimps on Young’s Hill (only four left in the auction), a week-long stay on Grand Cayman Island, an opportunity to be a virtual caregiver to the Cle Elum Seven for a whole day, a two-day pass to the Northwest Yoga Conference, and copies of Troll Mania, A Comfy Home and Present Moment, Perfect Moment with photos of the chimpanzees at the sanctuary. On the auction site are the last remaining copies of these books in hardback – no more hardback versions will be printed, so get them now!
Relax at this private pool on the Cayman Islands:
Get the very last available hardback copy of Troll Mania:
Tonight is the Out of the Box gala auction! This is going to be a phenomenal event with so many different things to bid on. There’s going to be a multitude of items in the silent auction, including impressive and beautiful handmade art pieces, great deals on local restaurants and other businesses, and amazing wine packages. The live auction features tons of fun getaways and even a private tour of the sanctuary. Buy a raffle ticket to get a chance to win a live auction item of your choice! You can also contribute by adopting a caregiver, and help sustain the sanctuary’s operating costs at the Do it Now board. I’m really excited and hope you are too!
This year’s Fund-a-Need item is probably our most important item yet. We want to open an on-site medical clinic, so that in case the chimps need medical care, they will get to wake up next to family. Do it for Negra!
And don’t forget about the online auction, which opened up for bidding this morning! It will just go until Sunday, so hurry up and place your bids quick! This is a great way for long-distance supporters to take part in the Out of the Box auction. (And for local attendees, too—there’s items available online that won’t be available tonight!)
