Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

csnw

Lunch Forage

by

Today we did a big lunch forage on Young’s Hill. It was fairly windy, so Negra decided to enjoy her lunch in the greenhouse, but the rest of the crew went out and thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

Burrito

Foxie

Jamie’s food squeaks were out of this world!

Missy came running over to reassure Jamie during all the excitement

And Jamie kissed her back

After everyone had collected all the most exciting stuff (bell peppers, oranges, lettuce, onions), Missy went back and collected a ton of celery!

Hoppy Easter!

by

Today was a full day of mini-parties! First, we had a juice forage in the Playroom (something all the chimps love), then we set up a lunch forage in the greenhouse, followed by an Easter Egg Hunt on Young’s Hill! On the menu for lunch was Easter baskets of cut up fruits and veggies in a bed of lettuce, courtesy of volunteers Stephanie and Katelyn. The chimps were so excited!

Missy:

Foxie got a couple of new trolls, thanks to Katelyn and to Dick and Robbi Brown, who donated tons of new toys for the party:

Jody with her head in the game

Burrito always has his head in the game!

Jamie and her loot:

Negra and Jody enjoying their lunch together

Negra was so happy!

After lunch, the chimps went out on Young’s Hill for an Easter Egg Hunt! We were so excited to be able to see them search 2-acres for plastic Easter eggs filled with peanuts and berries. There were also carrots stuck in the ground, allowing them to “harvest” their own carrots! What a fun day!

rule #1 – make your boss happy

by

We talk a lot about how Jamie is the boss not only of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees, but of the humans at the sanctuary too. People ask us what makes her the boss. I don’t know that I’ve ever explained it quite this way before, but I’d say a good 75% of the “why” behind Jamie’s leadership status is that she just knows she should be in charge. I don’t think there’s any question in her mind that she should have a privileged status among all of us.

This entitlement means that Jamie can be demanding. If she’s trying to get our attention in order for us to give her something, she’ll often stand in the loft of the playroom, look into the kitchen and stomp her feet or hit the caging. Today she did this after lunch. Volunteer caregiver Connie and I were the only humans in the building at the time. Connie did her best to try to figure out what Jamie wanted, bringing her out various favorite things like crayons, big container,s and a couple of pairs of boots.

But the boss was not satisfied.

So, we decided to get ALL of Jamie’s boots (even the extras that were in storage) and line them up outside of the front rooms. It’s something that I had tried over a year ago that worked (see that blog post), and we were out of options. I don’t know if this is exactly what Jamie wanted, but she was definitely pleased with our solution. She would point to certain boots and we would hold them up for her. Some of them she seemed to just want to look at, some she wanted to touch, and others she asked us to give her by standing near the chute with her hand in the position to grab a boot that we dropped in (you can see the rectangular hole and the wire mesh chute below in this photo).

boots on display

 

jamie face

Jamie’s current boot friend

by

Jamie never tires of boots, but her favorite bounces around (just like most of us shoe-lovers!). Her current favorite in her collection is this red pair, donated by new volunteer Carrie Parker (thanks again, Carrie!). She has several pairs that are relatively new and that are exciting to her, but today these were the only pair that satisfied her. She had me pull out her entire collection until I finally picked up the red pair, and she immediately jumped up and ran towards the food chute so I could give it to her. The girl knows what she wants!

Visits from old friends

by

The chimps have gotten a few visits from old friends lately. Founder Keith LaChappelle was here last week for Sippin’ for the Seven. The chimps are always so excited when Keith comes to visit, especially his pal Burrito! But this time, Negra was especially affectionate:

And today, former volunteer caregiver Kim visited. The chimps were so excited to see her! While we were cleaning the Greenhouse, she got to spend some quality time with Jamie and Foxie through the chimp-proof glass window.

Shed in the Rain

by

 

Today is caregiver Jackie’s birthday and you can wish her a happy birthday on Facebook. While Jackie was celebrating her day, I really felt like it was my birthday at the sanctuary because construction on “my” shed has begun!

At the Out of the Box 2011 auction in October, 16 people (in some cases, couples) donated towards my “adoption” and what I was really wanting, in my heart of hearts, was a shed to store all of the event set-up and tabling materials, merchandise and other various sanctuary stuff that has crept into the garage and the part of the house that J.B. and I rent from the sanctuary. I was dreaming kind of big, but Keith LaChappelle, Audrey & Jim Spencer, Jack & Sue Mulcahy, Max Carriveau, Jeani Goodrich, Julie Harding, Anika Lehde, Pam Lehnert & Marc Warner, Jessica Martinson & Lisa Cossette, Helen Payton, Dot & Allan Rothfus, Felicity Wood, Cathy Parker, Connie Robertson & Bill Lamm, and Barbara Boekholt gave towards my “adoption” and Jim Spencer even offered up his time and skills to build the shed.

And now it’s becoming a reality! Jim, who traveled all the way from Whidbey Island, Doug Bucklin and J.B. have spent the last two muddy and rainy days outside all day making my storage dreams start to come true. It has been especially heartwarming to see this happening and remembering Barbara Boekholt’s donation in particular. Barbara was Julie’s mom and she recently passed away. She was not well enough to attend the auction last year, but she sent Julie with a check just for my “adoption.”

This shed is no small-deal. We have a lot to store! It’s almost 200 square feet and it will have two windows (we’re using the windows that we removed from the chimp house (minus the caging) when we replaced them with chimp proof glass).

In the first photo below, you’ll noticed some very large logs. J.B. was also “adopted” at the auction and his project was to build new structures on Young’s Hill. Guess what those logs are for?!

 

Jim leading the crew with J.B. and Doug following instruction:

logs in front of shed construction

 

J.B. waiting for the word to start using power tools, Doug and Jim making sure things are level:

shed first wall

 

J.B. standing in front of the shed at the end of today:

JB in front of shedJ

Annie on Mt. St. Helens

by

As mentioned on the blog before, the folks that created the treat rock on Young’s Hill had some concrete left over, so they made a little replica of Mt. St. Helens. Foxie and Jody have both explored around the replica, but it also seems to be a nice little perch. Here’s a picture taken the other day of Annie sitting on top of the mountain: