Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
KIMA, the Yakima affiliate of CBS is airing a piece on Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest on their 5:00 and 6:00 news broadcasts. Tune in if you can! Once it airs, it will be on their site: http://www.kimatv.com/
I’m trying to upload a video now of Missy eating snow in the playroom…. it will be on the blog later tonight. The chimps had a good, relaxing day today.
Happy Friday!
This was a Valentine’s card we received from W.I.G.T. printing today! The calling cards that they printed for us (from a design by our volunteer graphic designer Kim) are really great. So great, that I want all of you to have a chance to get some to pass around. They are smaller than a business card, and perfect for giving to people that you talk to about the Cle Elum Seven or leaving in little stacks at friendly businesses. I’ll make them available through our online store soon.
Here are the cards:
and on the back of the Jody card:
There are three cards – Jody (above) and Negra and Burrito (below)
J.B. posted a video a few days ago with the background sounds of Foxie hitting a troll with a spoon. It’s not an uncommon occurrence these days. I consider it a good thing, because now she interacts with more forms of enrichment – spoons! This video is of Foxie “disciplining” a Madame Alexander doll with a ladle.
So, we have this totally amazing and fun event coming up – a wine tasting in Roslyn, WA being organized by this cool wine and antique shop called Vintage Vine. The event, Sippin’ for the Seven, among many other things, will be the debut of the new photo slideshow – all of the great photos of the chimpanzees in a five and a half minute slideshow set to music.
In my ideal world, everyone who reads the blog would be able to come and celebrate, raise a bit of needed funds, see the slideshow and listen to stories of the chimpanzees.
This is kind of a big event for us, so anyone who lives remotely close by should definitely try to make it. Roslyn is a great town (it’s where they filmed the show Northern Exposure), and there are places to stay overnight if you’d rather not drive back home after the sippin’.
If you really can’t come, we understand (say you live in South Carolina or California, for example). You can still participate in the event by making a donation. If you donate $40 or more using this donation form: http://chimpsanctuarynw.kintera.org/Sippin, I will send you a wine glass with the CSNW logo on it and a really nice postcard.
If you own a business, you can sponsor the event and we’ll include your business in the event program – contact me for details: [email protected]
Let’s see how much fun we can all have raising funds for the Cle Elum Seven!
For dinner, Elizabeth set out a lovely forage of bowls of creamy wheat cereal (aka farina) with fresh strawberries as well as whole apples. We’ve been getting a LOT of apples lately, so Elizabeth and I decided to set out three for each chimpanzee. Missy got it just right. Those opposable toes really do come in handy when you want to keep a grip on your two back-up fruit!
Today was the first day I had seen the chimps since the big fight and I was AMAZED at how quickly injuries are healing. Chimpanzees are darn tough – phsyically and in spirit. They would have to be to be able to survive everything that they have been through in their lives. Burrito and Missy spent a lot of time grooming, and Burrito displayed a couple of times during the day. So, things seem to be returning to the status quo.
I was talking to the chimps’ friend Margie the day of the fight, and she compared the chimps’ fighting and quick making-up to how some big human families interact – screaming matches one minute and sitting down to dinner the next 🙂
Last week Jamie took a small piece of cloth mesh (it may have been part of a troll costume), and tied it around her toe, then her finger. Jamie really likes shoes and feet, so I often show her my own toes. I have a toe ring, so maybe she was emulating that, or maybe she had something remember 🙂
Today she spent much of the day wearing her new red tutu, courtesy of her friend Tamela.
We often talk about how we can see the chimpanzees in the playroom when we’re standing at the kitchen sink, so I thought I’d share some photos so you all can better picture what we’re talking about. It’s a neat feature both for the humans who work in the kitchen and for the chimpanzees, who can see produce being washed, meals being prepared, and general organizing of the kitchen, which seems to be necessary almost constantly.
Right on the other side of the window above the sink is a human area where we wash toys and store cleaning equipment. To the right you can see the caging of the playroom and the playroom itself (you can just see the stairs in this photo).
This was our produce for today – one big box to sort through. We compost anything that is too far gone to serve and wash the rest. After it dries, it goes into the refrigerator behind the sink. All of the appliances and cupboards were donations.
And here is, roughly, the view the chimpanzees have, although they can climb higher to get a better vantage point, and they can also see into the kitchen from the loft. Usually there’s more going on than J.B. contemplating a tomato.
I consider this troll doll our kitchen mascot. He(?) sits in the windowsill in front of the sink. He was improved with a ball point pen by Jamie a few months ago – she spent quite a bit of time drawing on him. I usually see this side of him, but sometimes….
…he’s turned around. Jamie adorned his front side with the pen too.
In case anyone is a little bored with the lack of chimpanzee photos in this post, below is one I took last week. Boxes aren’t just for Burrito, Jamie enjoys a good box in the morning too.
