Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Our thanks, as always, to the dedicated volunteers who give up their own Christmas mornings to provide one for the chimps and to the staff that gladly work for an organization that never takes a holiday.
And Merry Christmas to all of our wonderful supporters! May you sleep soundly tonight atop your own mountain of gifts 🙂
On the seventh day of Christmas, the chimpanzees received giant slinkies. There are some in the groups who love slinkies to play with. We all know that Burrito and Willy B loved slinkies. We are now finding out some of the newer residents also seem to enjoy them. We have seen Rayne and Dora play with them as well as Gordo, though we currently don’t have any footage of Gordo because of his somewhat elusive nature.
Special thank you to:
Marya B. for donating the slinkies!
On the sixth day of Christmas
Donor Linda gave to me
New People magazines!
– Cy Chimpanzee, probably
We send our most heartfelt gratitude and warmest wishes to our supporters who have donated to the chimpanzees through the Comfort & Joy online auction! You can go directly to the event’s web page to see the numerous items that were purchased by our community on behalf of the chimpanzees who call the sanctuary home.
You’ve probably seen some of the earliest gifts unveiled on the blog recently, from Squishmallows On the First Day of Christmas to a Negra-themed blanket On the Fifth. Today’s surprise is another unconventional enrichment item, intended to excite one quirky individual in particular. Without further ado, we extend a special thank you to:
Linda M. for donating the subscription to People magazine (addressed to Cy Chimpanzee)
Indeed, the sanctuary’s biggest bookworm will now have a steady supply of celebrity gossip and pop culture trivia to entertain him when he needs a moment of peace apart from his companions. Today, Enrichment Coordinator Chad delivered the latest edition of People directly to Cy’s “mailbox” (a gap under the caging of the Marmot Mountain playroom). You can check out the included video to see how Cy reacted to the holiday surprise!
Boy howdy! What a busy day! Besides our daily Chimp House duties, we had our bi-weekly staff meeting, are deep in preparing for the resident’s Christmas party, sorting through gifts that arrived from the recent Comfort & Joy auction, and trying to keep up with Burrito!
We want to thank those who have purchased items off our Amazon Wish List! We just wanted to let you know if you have purchased something off the wishlist, or sent something directly to us, please be assured that we have or will receive it. It may just take a little bit for us to process things in order to send out the confirmation it has arrived.
If you would like to still purchase items off our wish list for their Christmas party, there’s still time! But time is starting to run out for it to be delivered on time. If you can, please peruse through our Amazon Wish List. We hope to make this Christmas a special one for them!
Now for some photos from today!
Terry taking his chow biscuits to go!
Missy trying to encourage Negra to get our of bed!
Honey B enjoying some persimmons at lunch!
Annie also enjoying her lunch persimmons!
Missy enjoying a forage of cabbage and snow!
Willy B eating his lunch chow biscuits with a view!
Beautiful Lucky!
And handsome Cy!
Mave taking in the sun coming through in the Oakwood Greenhouse!
Rayne taking a rest after lunch!
We try to have fun with holidays here at the sanctuary. To state the obvious, the chimps have no idea what we’re celebrating on Christmas or New Year’s or solstice. They do, however, enjoy a good party, and holidays are a great excuse for the staff and volunteers to treat the chimps to some creative food and enrichment.
I often wonder if by now some of the chimps – particularly the Cle Elum Seven, who have spent the last 13 Christmases with us – feel any sense of anticipation when the days grow short, the trees and decorations go up, and the snow begins to fall. When Jamie sees us move the potted Christmas tree from the hallway into her greenhouse on Christmas morning, does she know that she’ll soon find a new pair of boots underneath?
The chimps made the most of this particularly snowy Christmas Eve Day by scooping up snow and plucking the tomatoey eyes from Diana’s diminutive snowman.
We had a tradition in my house when I was a kid. On Christmas Eve, we’d get to open one gift, which would always contain new pajamas and a magazine. In hindsight, I realize that this may have been a way of working us kids down from our candy- and toy-fueled delirium and into bed. Nevertheless, at 44 years old I (and now Diana) still receive pajamas and a magazine from my wonderful mom. I know that Cy has no use for pajamas but I think he’ll like the other half of this tradition.
For our chimpanzee family, there’s no Santa Claus, no elves, no reindeer, and no magical snowman. But maybe, as they watch us assembling toys in the foyer and wrapping last minute gifts, they’ll go to bed knowing that tomorrow will be a special day filled with many of the things they love most.
Merry Christmas.
We took hundreds of photos during the various parties yesterday, no exaggeration. I combed through them today and selected a few I just had share.
Burrito unwrapped one of the many gifts and decided to wear the raffia ribbon for a while.
Then he donned a new leopard print scarf
The tree in the greenhouse was a real treasure this year and produced quite a lot of enjoyment.
Negra:
Annie:
Missy mastered the tree and got the most out of it until the very end when she toppled it over (see video from yesterday).
Look at that tangerine hidden way in the depths of the the tree!
Jody enjoying the fruits of her tree-scavenging labor:
There were several spots in the greenhouse that were dusted with coconut. Here’s Annie collecting some:
and Negra:
and I’ll end with this photo of Burrito, in awe of Christmas, with coconut dust on his lips:
for even more warm holiday cheer, check out our Instagram account to see a short clip of Mave’s Christmas nest. Happy Boxing Day, everyone!
