Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today’s enrichment theme was “tea party” so we took that literally and made two types of tea for the chimps to enjoy after we had finished cleaning their castle.
Post-tea time was spent on important things like diving into the nesting position, staring at a troll doll, and some lazy play with friends. Watch the video with sound.
Who can resist being thoroughly charmed by these chimpanzees?
Burrito loves food, but he also loves to play, like Jamie loves boots and Foxie loves dolls. He incorporates various enrichment objects that we give to the chimps each day to initiate play (usually it’s a wooden or plastic toy, but sometimes a slinky is involved). He does this by biting on the object, followed by a quick head nod and foot stomp oriented toward his human caregivers. With an invitation like this, it’s hard to pass up.
First, it was this yellow toy….
…and then it was this slinky…
…and then it was both of them together. He had a couple of great play sessions with volunteer caregiver Holly and these two pieces of enrichment.
I caught him in a quiet moment this afternoon with this wooden toy in his mouth. But, it didn’t take long before we were playing another game of chase.
Sometimes you just have to have flowers for the sake of having flowers. These sunflowers caught my eye this morning (they were in my garden) and I thought they could bring a little sunshine to the chimps’ day today.
Jody looked at the flowers and then did a taste test.
After eating a few, she took one with her out onto Young’s Hill and dropped it by her feet as she focused on eating her primate chow at breakfast.
Jamie checked them out too.
Foxie has an interesting relationship with her dolls. At times she beats them with wooden spoons or bites their limbs off, and at other times she snuggles them to her chest and kisses them. They serve multiple functions: they’re playthings, they provide comfort and companionship, and they’re there when she feels the urge to nurture.
Missy never ceases to amaze us with her feats of daring and Parkour. I think she lives out her own Olympic dreams every day, right here in Cle Elum. She rarely takes the easy way around, preferring to run, leap, climb and walk the tightrope to get where she wants to go. During a breakfast forage on Young’s Hill this morning, Missy started out with everyone else, but it didn’t take long for her decide she was going to take the firehouse from structure to structure, foraging in classic Missy style.
On August 23rd, we are going to be celebrating Missy’s honorary 41st birthday! Technically, Missy’s in the older chimp ladies age bracket, but Missy makes her own rules and seems to grow younger in heart, mind, body and spirit with each passing season. We can’t wait to celebrate this amazingly wonderful chimpanzee woman on her special day!
Foxie is the youngest 40 year old I’ve ever known. In chimp years, she’s an old lady. But this old lady is a backflipping, pirouetting, chasing, wrestling whirlwind. She is happy and silly and loving and kind.
On the chimps’ birthdays, we do our best to make their days as joyous as possible, and Foxie’s day is easy to make. To put it simply, she loves dolls. (It might be more accurate to say she’s obsessed.) Supporters from all over have been mailing in dolls for months, and we saved them all up for today. I meant to count them this morning before we set up the party, but there had to be at least fifty: cheerleader trolls and monster trolls and bride and groom trolls and surfer trolls and rockstar trolls….
For this morning’s party we scattered apricots, apples, pears, figs, and raspberries in the greenhouse, and we poured fruit smoothie into troll doll heads (of course).
The smoothie trolls were a hit.
Foxie:
Burrito:
Annie:
Jamie:
Negra:
Missy, who took it upon herself to systematically undress all of the new troll dolls:
Burrito and Missy:
Jamie:
And the birthday girl:
And a bonus video of Foxie checking out some new dolls:
Happy Birthday, Fox. May you continue to shine bright.
There are a number of things that I didn’t quite realize would be a part of helping to manage Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. One of these things is the depth of love that I would be privileged to witness among the humans who support the sanctuary.
I truly feel that the fans and supporters of the chimpanzees are part of an extended family. I am regularly in awe of the people who come together to look beyond themselves, and the pain that is part of existing in this world, to support the chimpanzees who live at CSNW and their new opportunity for life in a true home.
At the end of last year, a group of people came together to support Bill Walters, a friend who was going through cancer. Nicki and Bill Walters have been supporters for the sanctuary for years, in addition to supporting other animal rescue organizations in Washington.
There was an outpouring of love for Bill, so his friend Ken hatched a plan to use the collective donations towards the building of a new structure on the hill. The Twister structure was born.
Bill and Nicki were able to come out to the sanctuary to witness the chimpanzees exploring the structure after it was complete. It was a heartwarming day for me to be able to spend even just a little bit of time with Bill and be there with him to see the chimpanzees enjoy the structure named after him.
Last week, Bill lost his battle with cancer. His obituary is here.
I know that Nicki and all of Bill’s friends and family will never be the same. With his fun-loving nature and easy charm, Bill changed their lives for the better and his passing is a loss for them and for this world.
Bill, and the love that his friends demonstrated towards him, will always be remembered at the sanctuary through the tall tower on the hill.
