Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Cle Elum Seven

A whirlwind of years

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Today is about time flying by and some of the great random moments in the lives of the chimpanzees over the last ten years.

I’ve started and stopped this blog so many times today that I lost count.

 

There were toys to clean:

 

Laundry to do:

 

Amazing interns to train:

 

Paper braids for evening enrichment to be made (most of which were made by the aforementioned amazing interns):

 

 

And of course walks to take. Jamie was in the running mood today, so this quick snapshot was the only halfway decent photo I was able to get on one of our day walks:

 

Plus a whole host of other daily activities.

 

And then more walks after dinner! (well after I thought I would have this blog posted).

Courtesy of the unseasonably mild weather and the lengthening days, Jamie did three more walks after her evening meal, with Missy joining her for two of them.

 

This year’s HOOT! gala on May 19th will celebrate ten years of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees living the sanctuary life. TEN YEARS!

We are in the process of a website redesign right now. I’m really excited about a whole new look that highlights the great photos of the chimpanzees and hopefully makes it easy for people to be drawn in and fall in love with them. Here’s a sneak peek:

When the designers were starting to move the data over from the existing site into the new design, they ran into a snag because of the amount of content that we had in the blog. Ten years worth of photos, videos, and stories, it seems, takes up quite a bit of space.

I love that we have this diary of the chimpanzees’ days and the moments that were funny, poignant, and sometimes even mundane.

I remember being a kid and thinking that a week, or even a day (an hour?), was an excruciatingly long time to wait for something. I remember adults saying, “don’t complain – when you get older, time will fly by.”

Never were truer words uttered.

Lately, I feel like I’m in a movie montage – days pass by in seconds, and years are contained in just a minute’s worth of highlights. But then there’s this blog with all of these posts that mark real moments in time over the last several years. Moments that the chimpanzees were living to the fullest. Days that were spent with companionship, favorite foods, boots, trolls, blankets. Years that marked new additions to their home. Almost a decade of exploration into this new life they were given.

 

Here’s a look back on the last ten years of blog posts for January 20th (or thereabouts – we didn’t always post to the blog every single day – can you imagine!)

 

January 21, 2008:

not-so-shy Foxie

 

January 19, 2009:

Trolls: Not just for Foxie!

 

January 19, 2010:

Annie Upside Down

 

 

January 20, 2011:

Greenhouse play

 

January 21, 2012:

the snow days continue

 

January 20, 2013:

Floppy ears

 

January 20, 2014:

There’s something about Burrito

 

January 21, 2015:

Always a reason to play

 

January 20, 2016:

20 snapshots of the day

 

January 20, 2017:

Tool Use

 

And that bring us to today. Happy January 20th to everyone. Thank you for following along!

 

Whatever the Boss Says

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Volunteer caregiver Becca swung by the sanctuary today to drop off some produce for the chimpanzees. It was supposed to be a quick visit but as soon as Jamie spotted her, she recruited her for a couple of runs (runs!) around Young’s Hill. After the perimeter runs, a grooming session in the greenhouse was in order. Jamie eventually requested that Becca hand over the boot she was wearing, so she had to hobble back to the chimp house on one foot. We’ve learned to submit to Jamie’s rule and not complain too much.

Fashion Show

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Jamie loves to watch her caregivers model boots for her. Sometimes this process lasts ten or fifteen minutes. Jamie is by no means a passive audience – she lets us know which boot she wants us to put on which foot, and she makes sure we keep the fashion show moving at a steady clip.

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:

 

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!

 

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.