Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimpanzees

It’s Love a Chimpanzee Day 2023

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Can you believe it’s Love a Chimpanzee Day again already?! Supporter Monica Best named April 23rd Love a Chimpanzee Day and has sponsored this day each year since 2010 for her chimpanzee friends at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, creating a calendar-worthy official holiday and another excuse to throw a party! That’s a lot of years of love that Monica has shared with the chimps.

With our birthdays so close together, Monica and I have once again teamed up by creating a joint fundraising page for GiveBIG, and we invite you to celebrate this day by checking out our page and making a contribution.

Donor Donna is matching up to $20,000 in funds raised through the end of GiveBIG on May 4th, so your donation now is doubled! HUGE thanks to donor Vicki for making a gift on our page that encouraged us to raise our initial goal!

Monica’s love of animals is not exclusive to chimpanzees – she’s also studied wolves and worked in dog and cat shelters. She’s had many feline and canine friends over the years and created Love a Chimpanzee Day on her birthday in honor of her cat Ozzie during a difficult and uncertain time when Monica was fighting cancer. She credits the sanctuary (especially Negra) with helping her in her years-long battle with the disease and the aftermath.

We are so incredibly grateful for Monica and all of her generosity. She’s been instrumental in the expansion of the sanctuary these last several years and in helping encourage others to give.

You can help us celebrate today and the on Monica and Diana’s GiveBig fundraising page or the sanctuary’s main GiveBig page.

Happy Love a Chimpanzee Day, everyone!!

Burrito loves Duran Duran
Monica is a fan of Duran Duran and we took this photo of Burrito during the 2011 Love a Chimpanzee Day!

Ladies Who Groom

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It’s Wednesday and for many of us, we are busy with work, life, and all the in between. Personally, watching Dora and Honey B quietly groom and spend time with each other felt like some type of meditation. If you need a little zen or quiet time, this is the blog for you!

Sleepy Dora:

Bonus photo of Foxie this morning:

The New Kid in Town

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Hi, everyone! Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a volunteer here at CSNW? More specifically- have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a level III volunteer who interacts and serves the chimps? Worry no more- today is the first in a series of Guest Blog Writers! We have some amazing Level III Volunteers who have volunteered (because they’re awesome) to write a post or two about their experiences here, so be on the lookout for them over the coming months.

First up to bat, we have Dusty-  a level three volunteer in training! She has volunteered with us for about six years!! So, without further ado, check out Dusty’s blog below!

The New Kid in Town, by Volunteer Caregiver Dusty

As a volunteer, it’s a lengthy training process to learn how to serve the chimpanzees their meals. There are books to read, videos to watch, observations to be made, steps to take, lessons to learn. This intimate activity must be done with the utmost thought and care, after all I am entering their private home. Imagine someone new coming into your home to serve you
breakfast. Who would get the first apple? Maybe you like your smoothie before your chow. Maybe your sibling likes the pears you are served better and takes yours away. This experience is exciting and humbling and I’m constantly reminded by the sixteen – I’m the new kid in town – which transports me back to 1976 when The Eagles released “The New Kid in Town” song as part of the Hotel California album. If you’ve never heard this song (where have you been?) or to refresh your memory, take a listen to the song at the same time you read about my training experience below.

The New Kid in Town
There’s hoots in the hall, it sounds so familiar
Initiation time, all the chimps are watching you
Smoothies and plums, how do I serve them
Even though they know me they treat me like I’m someone new

Dusty come lately,
The new kid in town,
Better serve the food right,
or they won’t come ’round.

I look in Terry’s eyes, his Bronx cheers began to play
Gordo sprays me with water, here we go again
Rayne runs to hide, Lucky looks the other way
It’s those precious hearts I want to mend

Dusty come lately,
The new kid in town,
Better serve the food right,
or they won’t come ’round.

There’s so many things Jamie should have showed me
Serve her pears first, serve Neggie slowly, slowly
Jody got extra oranges, holy moly!

There’s hoots in the hall, it’s there to remind you
Doesn’t really matter which side of the caging you’re on

You’re walking away, they’re plotting behind you
Initiation will continue ’til somebody new comes along.

Dusty come lately,
There’s a new kid in town,
Better serve the food right,
or they won’t come ’round.

Just another new kid in town
Everybody’s gawking
There’s a new kid in town, I don’t want her apples
There’s a new kid in town, I don’t want her bananas
There’s a new kid in town
There’s a new kid in town
Everybody’s hooting
There’s a new kid…

Serving Jamie at breakfast:

Still in training, so Chad is close by!

Bonus Photo: Honey B being goofy while caregivers cleaned her front rooms.

Smiles All Around

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There are many amazing benefits to working or volunteering with the chimps (and cattle) here at CSNW. Don’t get me wrong – the days can be challenging (Anthony spoke about that wonderfully here), but it’s not lost on me how lucky I am that I get to come to work and hang out with 16 of my best friends… And the humans are pretty cool, too. 🙂

Like all humans, though, all of us have good days and bad days. In those moments where we are just feeling down, we are reminded of another perk of this job – we can (usually) rely on our chimp friends to get us smiling! Whether it’s Gordo’s bunny hop, Lucky’s excited greetings, Negra’s bed head, Annie’s bird noises, or a plethora of other small moments- no matter what our mood when we get to work, we often leave feeling content, happy, and fulfilled. I hope the daily blog gives you those feelings, too!

Missy, enjoying the brisk sunshine today out on Young’s Hill:

Rayne having a lil’ nap in the Riverview Greenhouse:

Zoomed out of Rayne’s lil nap- oh, hello Cy!

Negra looking past me to see what’s for breakfast:

Another of Missy outside, because I couldn’t pick just one:

Lucky resting inside while her caregivers cleaned:

Jamie watching Burrito run out onto the hill:

Gordo enjoying his breakfast avocado:

Hello, handsome Cy:

Annie spying on her neighbors whilst sporting the latest fashion:

Nonstop Christmas Fun!

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Well, what an amazing Christmas it has been! The chimps are still discovering new enrichment every day, like Foxie with the Anna doll from Frozen. While others, like Burrito, are still having fun with items they received before the big Christmas party. Words cannot express our gratitude for all of our supporters, we would not be able to do any of this without you!

This morning Cy’s group received access to the Chute and to say Burrito’s group were excited would be an understatement! The seven were all lined up by the window hooting and hollering, but Burrito especially took great interest! He almost missed breakfast! It had been a little while since the group of nine had received access to the Chute, because it has been so cold at the sanctuary.

I suppose I will share with you all a condensed story about the chaos that unfolded last week! We received quite a bit of snow in the past couple of weeks and it also became extremely cold, getting as cold as -5 degrees. So cold that last Wednesday our well water became frozen.  Our co-directors J.B. and Diana had left for a quick and very deserved trip to go see family over the holiday, however with all these winter storms their flight back got canceled. We went to the store and grabbed lots of water to use for cleaning and for drinking water, but we had to use the water sparingly because we had a few more days of  this extremely cold weather. Thankfully, all of this did not affect the chimps and they were none the wiser- we made sure that they had plenty of water, food, clean blankets, and most importantly a clean enclosure! We had a Christmas miracle because on Christmas eve it finally warmed up and the water started to work again! Finally, we have caught up on laundry and mostly decompressed from the chaos that has ensued. We are sooooo grateful to have J.B. and Diana back safely and that the water is flowing again!

Burrito watching his neighbors:

Cy enjoying some green beans:

Sweet Rayne:

On the Eighth Day of Christmas…

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On the eighth day of Christmas, the chimps received cozy blankets. I think you all can guess who put these blankets to good use!

Special thank you to:

CeeCee M. for bidding on cozy fleece blankets for the chimps!

And thank you to everyone who has donated blankets to us over the holiday!

It’s Negra, of course:

Negra in her morning nest. She greeted me and then went back to sleep :).

A Whirlwind of a Day

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Today has been a really busy day! Beyond the normal cleaning and preparing meals and enrichment, we had to shovel some snow, prepare for the incoming snowfall, and have our bi-weekly staff meeting! I was able to get some photos of Rayne for all to enjoy though!

And some bonus photos from last week!

Before the snow froze to become a giant ice cube for a bandit to steal, it was a trough full of fluffy snow!

Gordo was the first who grabbed a handful!

Followed by Willy B who shoved as much snow as his mouth could fit!

All the while Rayne took her time only picking out the best of the best of snow in the trough!

It’s amazing to think that when these two groups (before the integration) were very hesitant about snow treats! In fact, even last year they were pretty hesitant of snow. It’s always a joy when they come around on things they weren’t used to.

And finally, Negra still in her nest when I greeted her this morning!

And don’t forget Giving Tuesday! You can donate today or before the end of the year for our end of the year campaign!