Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Foxie

Mixing it up a bit

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Many folks have come to know the chimpanzees and their special interests. For instance, Foxie and her love of troll and dora dolls, Jamie and her love of boots and Negra and her love of nesting with a lot of blankets. Well, today, the chimpanzees decided to mix things up a bit.

Annie is usually shy in front of the camera, but not today. Here she is blowing bubbles.
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Then she licked the bubbles,
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and then blew more bubbles,
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and even more bubbles.
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Foxie, who can usually be found with a troll or dora doll had one of Burrito’s favorite toys in her mouth.
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Jamie usually lets us know when we pick out the right boot she wants us to wear for walking around Young’s Hill. Today she did not seem content with just one boot. After I showed her each boot in her boot bin, she continued to stomp on the second story of the playroom floor and motion toward her bin of boots. Turns out she wanted two boots not just one!

The boots on my feet during a walk around Young’s Hill with Jamie.
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Jamie with her boots after the walk around Young’s Hill.
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And finally, while cleaning the Playroom, we discovered an unusually large nest of blankets in Negra’s favorite nesting spot. Thinking that it was a little bit on the large side, we decided to count the number of blankets and found that she had made her nest with 31 blankets!! Throughout the course of a day, we place a total of 60 blankets in the Playroom, Greenhouse and Front Rooms, so a 31 blanket nest is quite large and probably quite comfortable. I wonder how many blankets she will use to build tonight’s nest. Unfortunately, I did not think to take a photo, but thought I would share that with you.

Choosing a Companion

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Each day we put out a variety of enrichment for the chimpanzees to play with. This is usually some assortment of toys, socks, scarves, hairbrushes, toothbrushes, scrub brushes, buckets, paper, stuffed animals, and anything else we think the chimps might enjoy. There are two types of items that we absolutely must include with each day’s enrichment: boots for Jamie and dolls for Foxie.

This morning Foxie spent a few minutes in front of a pile of dolls in the playroom, choosing which one(s) she should carry around for the day.

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Foxie frequently uses the bite test to assess a doll’s worthiness:

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In the end, she chose all three dolls, and the four of them headed into the greenhouse for some rest.

Everyone Loves Tomatoes

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There’s no denying Missy’s love of tomatoes, as Diana mentioned in her blog post recently, but today, all of the chimpanzees showed their love for Missy’s favorite food.

As soon as caregiver Katelyn walked into the garden, Missy was quick to get in position for Katelyn to serve her.

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Jamie quickly joined Missy at the window directly above where the plants are growing to get her share.

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Foxie realized what was happening and joined Missy and Jamie.

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It quickly became apparent to Katelyn that there was not enough room left in the window for the other chimpanzees. So, she moved over to the barn doors to serve the tomatoes. It didn’t take long for Negra, who was sleeping on the catwalk right above the window overlooking the plants, to climb down to get some tomatoes as well.

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Jody approached the barn doors to join in on the tomato fun with Negra on her left and Foxie on her right.

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As soon as Burrito and Annie realized Katelyn was serving tomatoes by the barn doors, they quickly joined the party. But, somehow they managed to avoid the camera and I am left with no photographic evidence of them eating any of the tomatoes (although I promise you, I saw tomatoes in their mouths).

Foxie in the photo booth

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One of the chimpanzees’ rooms has THE perfect light for photos. If we are fortunate enough to not only catch one of the chimps sitting by the window in this room, but also willing to have their photograph taken, we are almost guaranteed some great images. Of course, these good looking chimpanzee people also make it pretty easy.

This series of Foxie reminds me of a photo booth strip:

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Happy Birthday, Foxie!

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It’s hard to believe, but Foxie turned 38 today. Though she may have grown another year older, she showed that she has no plans to start acting her age any time soon. As soon as we walked in the door in the morning, she began spinning and pirouetting and chasing us from one part of the building to another while passing her troll dolls back and forth.

To celebrate her big day, we served all of Foxie’s favorite foods (fruit, fruit, and more fruit!) and gave her a few dozen new troll and Dora the Explorer dolls.  The chimps really enjoyed the birthday party – we tried to capture the look of sheer joy on their faces, but they would not stop inhaling watermelon long enough to be photographed.

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Luckily we got some video of the party as well:

Many thanks to all who have donated in honor of Foxie’s birthday! Here’s to many more birthdays to come!

Today is for Foxie!

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Today’s day of sanctuary was sponsored by Tracy Headley, in honor of her pal, Foxie Chimpanzee’s, 38th birthday! Tracy is a long time supporter and friend of the chimpanzees and never misses an opportunity to make their lives better, or celebrate a special day.

Tracy, thank you so much for all that you do for the chimpanzees and for being the kind and compassionate soul you are. We are so very fortunate to have you as part of the CSNW family!

Happy Birthday, Foxie! We love you!!

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Preparations for Foxie’s birthday celebration are under way now so please be sure to check back later today and see the festivities!

A Surprise for Foxie

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Tomorrow is Foxie’s 38th birthday, and we’ll be throwing a big party to celebrate. We’re going to fill her day with the stuff that makes her happiest, including this impressive collection of new troll and Dora dolls:

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Foxie hasn’t seen the new dolls yet. We want them to be a surprise on her big day. Be sure to check back tomorrow to see how she likes them!

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