Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Cle Elum 7

Happy Birthday, Manuela!

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I often marvel at the love the chimpanzees receive from friends and loved ones. To think they spent so many years unknown to so many and now they fill so many hearts and lives the world over. Manuela Santacreu sponsored this day of sanctuary as a gift for herself and Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy and Negra and sends this lovely message about today:

“Pour mon anniversaire, parce qu’il n’y a rien de plus beau que le bonheur simple de savoir ces chimpanzés heureux ! bravo à vous tous! ‘For my birthday, because there is nothing more beautiful than the simple happiness of knowing these happy chimpanzees! Congratulations to you all!'”

Manuela, thank you so much for sharing your celebration with the chimps! We appreciate the lasting difference your support makes in their lives. All of the primates here at CSNW wish you the happiest of days!

Negra:

Annie hugging Missy:

Jamie:

Burrito and Jody:

Burrito and Jody with bamboo

Foxie and doll:

New Year's Eve

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New Year’s Eve is so exciting! The anticipation for the new year builds while everyone spends time with loved ones. Here at the Sanctuary we are getting ready for our New Year celebration tomorrow! As we reflect on the past and look forward to the future we thank everyone for helping the chimps to an ever expanding life! Here are some photos of how the day was spent! Though most of Jamie and I’s day was wearing boots and chasing from the playroom to the Hill!

Jamie making a nest with a boot in her pelvic pocket:

Jamie zipping up her boots:

Negra making her nest:

Sweet Annie:

 

The Iconic Negra

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This morning I took this photo of Negra:

It’s not the greatest quality because i took it with my somewhat outdated phone.

 

It got me thinking about this photo that I took last week while Negra sat in the same spot eating a pomegranate:

 

For fun, I did a search for photos labeled with the words “Negra” and “arms crossed” and I found some of my favorite photos of this iconic queen of the sanctuary. Enjoy!

Negra sit on platform arms crossed

 

Negra heavy lip with eyes closed

 

I hope that you are having a Negra kind of a day – resting comfortably and just being yourself. And I hope you’ll take a moment to support Negra and her friends before midnight tomorrow by making a donation towards our $20,000 year-end goal. We’re about 40% of the way there so far!

 

 

Christmas Deconstructed

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Hopefully you’ve watched the video (several times) of the chimps’ holiday party yesterday – it was a pretty amazing day for all of the chimpanzees and the humans who were here to celebrate with them.

The chimps’ friends really know what makes for a great party! A good 98% of the decorations, food, gifts, and blankets were donated from friends near and far.

I thought it would be fun to share some of the still photos from yesterday to deconstruct the party a bit and tell you more about the day.

The first thing to deconstruct is the party food. We are pretty strict about the chimps’ diet. The vast majority of what the chimps eat is fresh produce, supplemented with nuts, seeds, and a small amount of commercially-made “primate chow.” We do not give them food that has added sugar or salt, and we give them very little processed food other than the primate chow. We want the chimpanzees here to be as healthy as possible, so we see their diet as preventative health care.

A few times a year, for special occasions, we bend the rules just a little bit, though you still won’t see the chimps here eating candy. As you can tell from the food squeaks, they are pretty pleased with what we offer.

One thing that dawned on me when we had the Jungle Solstice party last week is that a big part of the chimps’ excitement is not necessarily what the food is, but the fact that we bring out plates for parties. It seems like such a small thing, but I think they have realized that paper plates = party, so and they get excited even if the food on the plates is what they would normally be served on a random day.

 

Their Christmas plates this year had baked potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and cut-up fresh pomegranate:

 

For the bending-the-rules food, we also included slices of Field Roast’s Celebration Roast:

 

The champagne flutes (another “hey, it’s a party” signal) were filled with slightly watered down non-alcoholic sparkling cranberry cider (no sugar added):

 

Kelsi made the drinks extra fancy by adding a few pomegranate arils to each glass:

 

The other breaking-the-rules food that’s become a tradition for the holiday party is dinner rolls. Many of the chimpanzees go straight for the rolls, leaving some of the other food on the plate as seconds. That’s what sneaky Missy was “stealing” in the video from yesterday:

 

Negra is possibly the biggest fan of bread that I know, so she is always pleased to have this extra special treat. Knowing that, some cut up dinner roll pieces were placed in one of her favorite spots up on the catwalk:

 

The prize pineapple top that you saw Jody with in the video was a leftover from their breakfast. Jody made sure it was okay with Jamie before she took it upstairs to eat in private:

 

So, what about the presents?! Well, the trick with presents for most chimpanzees is to hide a bit of food in them. So, most of the bags and little boxes you saw had a nut or some other small not-breaking-the-rules food.

 

That’s not to say that the chimpanzees don’t appreciate new non-food objects, it’s just that food tends to be more universally exciting.

Jamie was very pleased to get two new pairs of boots yesterday, in addition to several books:

 

And Foxie got so many new dolls that I lost count. I don’t have a good photo of her with a new doll – suffice it to say that she was very happy with all of them! She handed me a new Strawberry Shortcake doll first thing this morning and then did some playful spins.

 

Today, the chimpanzees are resting up after the big celebration. Here’s Jamie, sound asleep, using her new boots as a pillow, with one of her favorite new books by her side:

 

The humans had a lot of clean up to do this morning after that extravaganza, which we did quite happily!

And Katelyn is busy in the office preparing thank you notes for all of the generous friends of the chimpanzees. Luckily part-time office cat LouLou is honing her computer skills to lend Katelyn a hand.

So, if you get an email that says, “rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?????????????????????” from Katelyn, you’ll know why.

 

Thank you to everyone who made yesterday, today, and all of the days of 2017 so very wonderful for all of the primates at the sanctuary!

 

Twas the Night Before Christmas

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Twas the night before Christmas and all through the chimp house not a creature was stirring… besides a few chimps;

The stockings were stuffed by a few kind volunteers;

In hopes for field roast and boots galore soon;

The chimps are all nesting comfortably in their blankets;

While they save energy for the big day that lies ahead.

The chimps are so excited for tomorrow! Today we did a lot of preparation for our Christmas party. We have 4 bins stuffed with stockings, blankets, toys, dolls, books, and boots! Staff have been busy organizing and checking all the enrichment and volunteers have been busy stuffing stockings and wrapping presents. Unlike some Christmas shoppers, we are stress-free thanks to all of our donors who gave the chimps gifts! Today, Christmas Eve was full of relaxing and building the anticipation for Christmas Day! There were many grooming parties, nesting, and games of chase! It was a little too cold to go on the Hill unfortunately, but we kept ourselves occupied…

Burrito played chase with volunteer caregivers to pass the time:

Foxie and Jamie played games of chase and napped most of the day:

Jamie collecting blankets to make her nest:

Missy and Annie wrestling:

 

 

Remembering Bill

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Nicki Walters sponsored this special Christmas Eve day of sanctuary in memory of her beloved husband, Bill, and she shared this touching message about today:

“This is my Christmas Present to my Sweet Willy Twist who is greatly missed. The Magnificent 7 always brought us so much joy and helped us find our smiles and give us reasons to laugh during several dark days. Even though he isn’t here to enjoy this day, I like to think he still looks on and watches them climb and romp around on his Twister! Merry Christmas to the Chimpazees and all who take such good care of them!”

Nicki, all of the primates here at the sanctuary are so fortunate to call you and Bill our friends. From our hearts, thank you for all you have, and continue, to contribute to making the chimps’ home a true sanctuary. Your amazing gift of Twister has brought so much joy and adventure to the chimps’ lives. It’s given boss lady, Jamie, a perfect vantage point from which to view her queendom and all the happenings in all the land:

It’s encouraged others to reach new heights of courage and daring (Burrito being VERY brave):

Foxie, Dora and Kate:

Foxie climb twister

Jody:

Inspired chimpanzee shenanigans (Missy top, Annie below):

Annie and Missy top of Twister

Missy chasing Annie:

And is a daily reminder of all the love that surrounds the chimps and all the good people we get to call part of our chimp family.

Nicki, you and Bill are in our hearts and thoughts and we are sending you all the good thoughts for a season full of love, comfort and peace.

Jungle Day

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In celebration of today’s winter solstice, we threw a jungle party for the chimpanzees. Why? Because we can!

After the food, the highlight of the party was the giant stuffed animals collected and sent to us by some good friends of the chimps. Stuffed animals this large are a rarity around here – most of the chimps are more interested in destroying them than playing with them. Burrito, however, is a big fan.