csnw

In memory of Ron and Betty Kreuscher

September 21, 2016 by Katelyn

Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Ronalyn Huenergard in honor of her parents, Ron and Betty Kreuscher. Ronalyn shared this message about today:

“On my parents wedding anniversary, who didn’t have a chance to meet all their great-grandchildren and vice versa, this is on their behalf – all 13 of them.”

Ronalyn, what a wonderful way to honor the memory of your parents and the family they helped create. Thank you so much for sharing this gift for the chimpanzees on behalf of Ron and Betty’s great-grandchildren. May you all celebrate their lives and legacy with joy today! And thank you for helping to ensure the chimps spend their days surrounded by a family to call their own.

Jody and Missy:

Jamie and Negra:

Burrito, Jamie and Foxie:

Jody, Missy, Annie, Foxie and Burrito:

An Imperfect Life

September 18, 2016 by Elizabeth

In Negra’s alternate life – the one she should have had – she was born in the wilds of Africa, enjoyed a long, lazy childhood by her mother’s side, spent her days traveling with her group, climbing trees, and playing with friends, and grew up to have and raise her own babies and grandbabies.

In Negra’s actual life, she was born in the wilds of Africa, captured as an infant – probably after watching her family shot to make her capture possible – and shipped to the United States to be used as a research subject. She spent her days alone in metal cages no larger than a bathroom stall and experienced the world through filters of boredom, fear, pain, and loneliness. She had three babies in a five year span, all of whom were taken away from her within days or hours of birth, never to be seen or touched again.

Negra was about 35 years old when she stepped out of her last lab cage and into her new home at the sanctuary. That was a little over eight years ago. I sometimes wonder if there is some equation to represent the value of sanctuary to Negra and the others. Does one day in sanctuary cancel out one day in the lab? We can only hope.

Negra shouldn’t be here. She deserved to be wild and free. But her lot in life was determined by forces out of her hands, and out of ours. All we can do, and what we must do, is infuse her imperfect life with as much love and warmth and joy and comfort (and blankets and peanuts and sunshine) as we can, and then root for her as she steps toward recovery.

This is for the activists

September 17, 2016 by Diana

Last night I was going through some old documents and newspaper articles and reading about the history of chimpanzees being retired to sanctuaries, and, in particular, activists who worked to get chimpanzees out of Buckshire, where the seven chimpanzees living at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest came from.

I will share more details at a later time, but one thing that really struck me was the extremely dedicated people who worked for years to help chimpanzees who they had never even met.

Working at and for a sanctuary can be hard work, but the reward is constant. There is a direct connection between the care that goes into sanctuary work and witnessing happy chimpanzees benefit from your labor. Most people who work in sanctuaries are also advocates, but our priority, as it should be, is to provide the very best life possible for those we care for at the sanctuary.

People who work full-time as activists and animal advocates don’t often have this direct reward. Their work, which often involves endlessly writing complaints and submitting FOIA requests, or working to change legislation, can be arduous. They know that there is wrong being done, and they work to create better outcomes, but it often takes years to see an outcome; all too often nothing comes of their hard work. Then, when there is a happy ending, they move on to the next animal or animals who are suffering.

But their work is precisely what has made the sanctuary life for the Cle Elum Seven, and for other animals in sanctuaries, possible.

Today I would like to publicly thank them and let them know that in my head and heart I thank them each time I think of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees, which is pretty much all the time.

Negra foraging for lunch:

Foxie with Dora and friend:

Jamie and Burrito patrolling together:

Burrito finishing up the patrol around the hill:

Annie and Missy at the top of Twister:

Jody in profile:

Tiny chimps

September 14, 2016 by Katelyn

As soon as breakfast was over this morning Jamie was ready (and demanding) to go on her first perimeter walk of the day. If you got a chance to check out Elizabeth’s great blog post yesterday, you can see this is also the time we begin cleaning the chimp house. But Jamie makes sure we keep our priorities straight. So as Anna and Jamie headed off for a walk, most of the other chimps decided to join them (with the exception of the Queen who was enjoying her after breakfast nap in the greenhouse)! And so I headed out to our observation platform to take photos.

It never gets old seeing the chimps traverse their outdoor habitat, but it was a special treat to see them all on the structures together! They looked so tiny out there…

Anna, (top to bottom) Jamie, Jody, Burrito and Missy:

Annie, Missy, Jamie (at top) and Jody walking away with her treasure of found cattails:

Jamie, Burrito, Missy (Anna looks like she’s catching a piggy back on Missy, but rest assured she’s on the outside of the fence 😉 ), and Annie:

Meanwhile, Foxie and her twin Doras had meandered over to climb up Jamie’s Tower:

So tiny…Foxie on Jamie’s Tower (the top right hand of the photo), taking in the woods above the sanctuary (and our new property!):

Jody continued back to the greenhouse with her mouthful of cattails, making her way through the tall grass like a wild woman:

The others caught up with Foxie and reconvened on Jamie’s and Carlene’s Towers together. Annie standing below, Jamie on the ladder, and Foxie up top:

Jamie, Missy and Foxie:

Jamie made her way across the shaky bridge to Carlene’s Tower:

Burrito isn’t as sure of himself on shaky structures so he’s a little more cautious about traversing the bridge, but he made it across, brave chimp man that he is:

Diana cleverly stuck some cattails on top of the roof for Annie’s birthday a few days ago and somehow it’s gone unnoticed by the chimps. Until this morning:

Missy lucked out after Jamie left and found another one. The second she pulled it down a cloud of seeds blew across the hill:

All during the photo shoot, Ellie enjoyed her favorite morning spot stretched out in the shade underneath the platform I was on, or as I like to call it, the elk port:

Annie Bird’s Birthday

September 10, 2016 by Diana

Today we celebrate Beautiful Annie’s birthday. For the breakfast party in the greenhouse, we chose to have a bird theme because of the bird noises that she, uniquely, makes when she is relaxing.

The theme turned tropical with coconut, watermelon (that’s tropical, right?), pineapple, and fruit smoothie. Plus some primate chow, which Annie is fond of:

Also included were headbands (on the decorative slinky below) because of Annie’s sense of fashion.

Her friend Francoise even sent a book from Canada for us to interact with Annie (I did, later in the day, but didn’t get any photos – we’ll continue to have fun with this book, I can tell – Foxie and Jamie were very interested in it too!)

Later in the day, for the lunch forage, we had some of Annie’s favorite foods: green onions, leeks, cattails, and romaine lettuce. And we included some roses from the garden, mini-peppers, and more primate chow.

Let’s get down to the chimp pics. You decide if Annie enjoyed our efforts:

Of course the other chimpanzees appreciated Annie’s celebration too.

Burrito on a mission to find more food:

The coconut was a special treat:

Foxie:

Missy:

Negra:

Jody:

But there were plenty of other treats to enjoy throughout the day:

Negra foraging:

Jody with leeks:

Missy with a mouthful of chow:

Jamie’s hand getting the plate of food from under the tub:

Jamie with a leek and cattail:

The day ended with more treats – baked sweet potatoes and beets:

Annie thanks everyone for making her 42nd birthday a day of celebrating her favorite things and honoring how much we love her!

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Happy Birthday, Annie!

September 10, 2016 by Katelyn

Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by the chimps’ good friends, Althea and Ahmad Dani, in honor of beloved Annie on her 42nd birthday!

“Happy Birthday Beautiful Annie! May this joyous occasion of your honorary birthday be filled with all of your favorites; vegetables, green onions to your hearts content, forages on your beloved hill and lots of glorious playtime with your best friend Missy. Safe and secure at sanctuary, you will never, ever be alone again. Each day now reveals a different layer of your once forced upon suppressed and imprisoned self. Just in case you didn’t know, you are gentle and couragious; daring and captivating; intelligent and thoughtful. Sing loud and joyously dear Annie. A whole bunch of us love and care about you so dearly. Pant hoots to this beautiful and charming lady that we call Annie!”

Althea and Ahmad, thank you so very much for sponsoring today for dear, sweet Annie! We so appreciate all that you do to bring joy, comfort and love to the Cle Elum 7 and those of their children who are fortunate enough to be residing at other sanctuaries.

Beautiful Annie, Happy Birthday!! May your gracious, gentle and courageous heart be filled with more love and joy than ever today as we celebrate the amazing person you are. May your day be filled with shenanigans with your beloved friend, Missy, green onions galore, stretchy “waist-band” couture, and everything else that makes you happy. We love you so much!!

The Lookouts

September 7, 2016 by Katelyn

As Elizabeth wrote in her blog post the other day, as much as we truly love sharing what the chimps get up to each day with you, there are a variety of factors throughout any given day which can play into our time and occasionally we’re left scrambling to come up with something with which to produce a worthy post. And today was another one of those days. After our staff meeting this afternoon our window to find blog material was a bit shorter, coupled with the fact that the chimpanzees (rightly so) had zero interest in helping to solve this particular human’s challenge.

So I cannot tell a lie. Though the chimps all seemed to have had a great day enjoying the cooler weather as we head toward autumn, I fell short of catching even one of them in a photo. However! I have been hanging onto these gems that I captured during an evening walk with Jamie and her right hand gal, Missy, the other night as they scaled the Twister: