Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Our third sponsor for today’s day of sanctuary is Jean Bengston, who gave the gift of sponsoring Christmas in honor of Julie and Rob Sweet.
And what a Christmas it has been! Thank you to everyone who sponsored today and contributed to the fun of the party, including Patti and Chad who volunteered and helped set up the party this morning!
Molly Adrian is the second sponsor of today’s day of sanctuary for the chimpanzees! She is honoring her mother, Nancy Hedlund and shared this message:
“Christmas Day – my mom would love nothing more than to gift a day of happiness and nourishment for these beautiful chimpanzees. Merry Christmas!!”
Happiness and nourishment abound today!
Here is a little preview of their Christmas so far, with more to come, of course!
This photo pretty much sums up Christmas for Jamie. We’ve been talking about how she is the consummate consumer – she loves things! The more, the better. Her friends really came through for her and the other chimps today and sent an abundance of gifts and decorations for the party. So many, that we’ll be having a second party later this afternoon! Here is Jamie looking through one of her new boot books:
If you’ve been following the blog for a bit, you know that food is the biggest source of excitement for Burrito. So, he’s pretty much beside himself when the holidays roll around:
We’ve got a third sponsor-a-day coming up, and we’re working on the video of Party #1 right now. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate!
We (finally) got a sprinkling of snow yesterday, so Anna and volunteer Becca filled up some buckets with the fluffy stuff and put them in the front rooms for the chimpanzees after we had finished cleaning.
It’s a gorgeous day today in central Washington. The sun came out early and has been shining bright all day. The snow on the ground catches the light and makes it look like the world is winking and sparkling.
For Annie, today was the kind of day that you take a bucket of snow up to a window on the catwalk and enjoy the cold treat with the sun streaming onto your face.
And when her friends Jody and then Missy came by, she decided there was plenty to share:
Happy eve of Christmas Eve, everyone!
You saw the photos last week of the chimps’ first holiday celebration of the season. We saved the video from the party, and J.B. put together this video just for you:
Learn more about joining the Chimpanzee Pal program, just in time for the holidays.
What a day!
Thanks for giving these chimps a reason to celebrate. It is such a joy for us to see your support transformed into pant hoots, food squeaks, and hugs. Happy Holidays!
Anna and I decided to give the chimps some treats today to celebrate both the first night of Hanukkah and Christmas Eve. You may have noticed that we are pretty strict with the chimpanzees’ diet – nothing with added sugar, very little salt, and rarely any processed foods. Most of their diet consists of raw (sometimes cooked) fruits and vegetables, seeds, nuts, and a bit of commercially made primate chow, which is like a protein biscuit.
Even when we treat the chimps to something they don’t get very often, we try to stick to our dietary goals. It keeps them healthy, and they still love the food they get everyday!
In celebration of Christmas Eve, we set out “milk and cookies” (watered down warm almond milk + primate chow). I’d say it was a hit:
Burrito:
Jamie:
Foxie:
Missy:
Negra:
Jody looking pretty happy:
For the Hanukkah part of the celebration, Anna made some delicious looking (and delicious tasting – we had to try them for ourselves) salt-free potato latkes and I made some sugar-free chunky applesauce to go on top.
The chimps ate the latkes so fast, we weren’t able to get many photos.
Foxie brought France Dora to the meal, because she’s cosmopolitan like that:
Jamie being served by Anna with Burrito on the right:
Missy being served with Burrito looking on (I promise Burrito got at least his fair share too):
Annie took her latkes to the doorway to savor:
Definitely a win for fun food today!
In between the treats we humans came up with, they found some of their own…
And made some time to rest too:
Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and holiday wishes to everyone! There will be even more treats for the chimps tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who supports the sanctuary – you make EVERY day a celebration.
It was almost a year without Christmas.
OK, that’s not true – but Christmas was nearly delayed by a few days. The Cascade Mountains here in Washington received more snow in the last week than in all of last winter. Interstate 90, the only direct route between the sanctuary and Seattle, was closed for days due to avalanches in the mountain pass, and many of our volunteers were stuck on the other side. Thankfully, the highway was reopened last night and volunteer Patti was able to make it over this morning with the chimps’ Christmas dinner.
I don’t know if that qualifies as a Christmas miracle, but the support we’ve been receiving over the last month has certainly been miraculous. Packages have been arriving for weeks from generous donors, some long time supporters of the Cle Elum Seven and some who just discovered the sanctuary through stories about Foxie and her dolls in the UK, Germany, and Australia. You can guess what our newest supporters sent for Foxie! And our dedicated volunteers have been braving some treacherous conditions on the pass to reach the sanctuary. We are so grateful to everyone that helped make this a special holiday season for the chimps.
This Christmas was filled with great food, lots of boots and dolls, and a few surprises as well. Check out the video to see for yourself!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.
