dora

Just a Little Stitious

May 18, 2022 by Kelsi

Are you superstitions? New World Encyclopedia says: “The earliest superstitions were created as a way to deal with the ignorance and fear of the unknown. Chance misfortunes could be ascribed a cause, and the potential to avoid or control them was created. Superstitions are thus a way of attempting to regain control over events, particularly when one feels helpless.”

I wouldn’t say we are superstitious at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, but we are careful about saying how successful the integration is going. I guess you could say we don’t want to jinx anything. Anna pointed out a quote from Michael Scott on The Office that describes us best in our current situation: “I’m not super stitious, but I am a little stitious.” Recently, I find myself knocking on wood if I say the 9 are doing well, just in case something goes wrong. Which is why a recurring phrase you have/will hear from us for a long time is: We are cautiously optimistic! We don’t know what the future holds for these 9 chimpanzees, but for now things are looking up and we are just a little stitious.

I wanted to capture some photos of the 9 grooming and playing, but they were all doing those things in hard to reach places. However, I was able to capture a few individual photos today!

Dora peacefully napping:

Lucky:

And Willy B admiring his own reflecting:

Today is also Wish List Wednesday!! We recently just updated the wish list!

Play, Soul Sister

May 16, 2022 by Anthony

For today’s blog post, I’m sharing this video of Dora being casually goofy with caregiver Grace.

Enjoy!

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P.S. I apologize for the title pun. I don’t even like that song.

Where in the World is Annie?

May 11, 2022 by Kelsi

I wanted to share a fun little story from this morning! As I gave Annie’s group Young’s Hill, everyone including Negra rushed out. Once Anna brought breakfast out to the greenhouse all the chimps were heading back in to eat, except Annie. We couldn’t find Annie anywhere. It had been more than 10 minutes of breakfast being served and she was nowhere in sight. Annie does not miss a meal! Sofia came over to help do checks when I said I think Annie is on the Hill, but we can’t see her anywhere. Sofia told us she did this yesterday, but eventually came back for breakfast. We finally got a glimpse of her 15 minutes into breakfast, she was far up on the top of the Hill foraging for what I assume was grass or some kind of foliage. Apparently, that grass was so good she didn’t even come back for breakfast! Breakfast was not a concern for Annie, because when she finally returned and Anna tried to call her over for food, she very contently laid back on the platform in the greenhouse and took a little nap.

Today was a beautiful spring day so we took advantage of the weather and did a Hill forage for lunch!

Don’t worry Annie got plenty of food!

But Missy seemed to score the most!

Negra was quite pleased with her haul! She even worked pretty hard for her food too, look at Neggie on the Esher structure!

Jody with a mouth full of corn and hands full of forage!

Jamie collected her forage and then took all of it to a secluded hammock to eat alone.

Burrito cradling an arm full of onions:

Little Foxie was having a great day roaming around the Hill and hanging out with friends!

Bonus Photos!

Rayne was asleep in a cozy nest up on one of the leaves in the Marmot Room.

And sweet Dora was hangout in the window ledge watching her caregivers cleaned her playroom.

Plans? What Plans?!

April 12, 2022 by Sofia Castro-Loza

I can’t speak for all the caregivers at CSNW, but for me lead days require mental preparation ahead of time. Some of it is getting on the shifting mentality, thinking of material for the daily blog, planning the individuals that will be involved during introductions, etc. Today was one of those days that from the moment I woke up, all of that preparation went out the window. It turns out that as caregivers there are two things we can’t control: the weather and a group of riled up chimps.

Kittitas County woke up to a significant ongoing snow shower with more than 3 inches of snow already on the ground by 7AM in Ellensburg. Cle Elum did not get the same amount of snow, but the inch or so is half melted by now. The gloominess remains. Being inside was definitely the popular choice for the chimpanzees. This meant plenty of napping in the green houses and a lot of grooming.

For introductions, my wish was to have Gordo and Terry involved with Willy B and Mave. But Gordo and his 5 friends had other plans. While trying to sort them out, a fight broke out and although everyone was OK, it derailed the sorting. The final combination ended up being Cy and Terry with Willy B and Honey B. After many displays between the guys, the introduction remained through the mesh. At the time of separating the groups, Willy B and Honey B refused to go back into the Mezzanine. It wasn’t until dinner was offered that they decided it was the right time to go back to their enclosure and reunite with Mave.

View of our Spring snowy day

Jamie in the process of drifting into a nap in the green house

Terry grooming my boots

Cy and Terry grooming each other

Rayne, Cy, Lucky and Terry grooming

Rayne, Dora, Cy and Lucky grooming

Let’s Play!

April 6, 2022 by Kelsi

As I looked through my phone I realized I had so many small clips of the chimps playing. Some were too short to make into a full video, so with the help of some other caregivers we made a montage of the chimps playing over the last couple weeks.

I was also was able to snag a handle full of photos today!

Spring is here because Negra says it is:

The mischievous Miss Honey B:

Dora melting in the warm Oakwood greenhouse:

The handsome freckled-face Terry:

I felt like someone was spying on me while I tried to take photos of Terry. I was right!

It was Lucky spying on me:

Sam took this great photo of Burrito and was kind enough to share it with me. If you are thinking, geez Burrito looks intense you are right! He was ready to play! After he let Sam snap some photos he leaped up and insisted they start playing chase!

Happy Spring!

March 20, 2022 by Sam Jones

Happy first day of Spring! Let’s hope this means warmer weather is on the way soon! It was cold today with even a little bit of snow, so it didn’t feel much like Spring. The chimpanzees didn’t seem to mind though! The three chimpanzees in Willy B’s group were all enjoying interacting with a slinky today.

First, this morning Mave was using it as part of her nest. Honey B is sitting behind her.

Willy B then decided to drag it around the front rooms with it around his ankle!

Honey B also took a turn dragging the slinky around.

Willy B looking pretty handsome.

Here’s what some of the other chimpanzees were up to today!

Terry enjoying time in the Riverview Greenhouse.

Dora spent a lot of time in the Riverview Greenhouse today.

Missy decided to take some of her lunch (red bell peppers and chow) out onto Young’s Hill.

Jamie on a walk with one of her caregivers.

Foxie relaxing in Greenhouse.

Sunny Tuesday

March 15, 2022 by Sofia Castro-Loza

Sunny days are always great, specially after some days of non-stop rain. Today, the clouds scattered away and the rays of sunshine made an appearance. To say the least, everyone, including the caregivers were very happy to catch a break from the Pacific Northwest gloominess. If only there were away to turn OFF the wind!!! But regardless of the wind, the chimps in Jamie’s group went on countless walks around the hill and spent most of the day in their warm greenhouse. Cy and his friends also spent the day in their greenhouse and every so often you could walk by and someone would pop their heads off the edge of the platforms for a subtle “hello”. Willy B and his friends were very into the raisin boards they got for daytime enrichment, although it is very likely that Willy B got every single raisin.

Annie looking over at the neighbors before sprinting over to catch up with Jamie, who was going on a perimeter walk with caregiver Grace and her sweet new boots: