Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Jamie

Happy faces

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Did I mention that I love Jamie-ween’s Hallo-Birthday at CSNW? As if The Great Pumpkin and all the treats in the Playroom weren’t enough, volunteers Stephanie and Katelyn carved mini pumpkins and filled them with various fruits and veggies (cucumbers, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, etc) for the chimps’ lunch forage in the greenhouse. I think the chimps were already stuffed at that point, but they enjoyed them none the less! Needless to say, no one, not even Burrito, was interested in dinner.

The carved mini pumpkins:

If you take a closer look at the photo above, you might noticed that one of the pumpkins has a “CS” on it. And you may notice that in the photo below, Burrito’s carved pumpkin has a “W” on it. It was impossible to really get a good photo of the whole thing, but it says CSNW. Stephanie is so creative.

They also carved faces into melons:

Jamie:

Jody:

Foxie looks like she’s mimicking the face of hers

What a great day. Thanks so much to Stephanie, Katelyn, Tamela, Dick and Robbi for all the awesome gifts and decorations for the party and to all of those who donated in honor of Jamie’s big day! You guys are the BEST!

The Great Pumpkin

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As Diana mentioned in a blog post from earlier, Jamie and I share a birthday today! I can’t think of a better way to spend my Hallo-birthday than by throwing a party for Jamie and the rest of the Cle Elum Seven!

We have a lot of folks to thank for making today’s party a huge success. Robbi & Dick Brown and Tamela donated a lot of fun new toys and decorations, and volunteers Steph and Katelyn brought some new things with them today as well. We also want to thank Deborah G., Barbara B., Jessica K., Tamela, and Jeani G. for donating towards Jamie’s big celebration today! And of course we can’t forget all of Jamie’s Chimpanzee Pals: Cherie Breaux & Robert Bochnik; Kathy Carlson; Candy Crannell; GFWC Cascade Woman’s Club; Debbie Kray; Pam Lehnert & Marc Warner; KC McCarthy; Jackie Mulanax & Brad McNeice; Debra Redwine; Pam Reid; Kathleen Roan; Tony Silvia; Nicole Sturn; and Jackson Walkden-Brown.

Steph and Katelyn brought with them a giant pumpkin, with Jamie’s named carved in it (and the “J” was made into a boot!) The following photos are of the Great Pumpkin (as I’ve decided to call it).

 

Jamie with her pumpkin:

 

Jody was the first to dig in:

 

Negra joined in:

 

Missy asking Jody if she can share, Jody giving her a reassuring kiss:

 

Jody and Foxie (Missy in the background):

 

At one point Burrito was working on the pumpkin all by himself:

 

So much happened today that I’m pretty sure there will be more Hallo-birthday photos and videos posted tomorrow!

 

Happy Halloween Birthday

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Today is not only Halloween and Jamie’s honorary birthday, but it is also caregiver Debbie’s birthday. And in just three days it will be caregiver Elizabeth’s birthday. Send a donation “treat” for Jamie or her caregivers and your name will be on the blog later today – so get your donation in soon!

Halloween parties are so much fun at the sanctuary – just ask Jamie.

Jamie with halloween pinata

Today’s choices

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Today the day started out kinda rainy and so the chimps stayed in the front rooms while we cleaned the playroom. I caught an unusual duo wrestling—Negra and Annie! Annie does not always play with folks other than her best friend Missy, and Negra doesn’t play as often as the other chimps. So it was really awesome to see the two of them engaging in so much fun. I wasn’t able to get a lot of good video of it, but I did catch a brief snippet.

Later in the day the sun was out and Young’s Hill was the place to be. Everyone but Negra came out at one point, and even after Burrito went back inside the other girls hung out for a bit longer. It was great to see five chimps out on the hill all at once. In the last piece of this video, you’ll be able to see all five in the same shot.

Tomorrow we’re celebrating Jamie’s birthday on Halloween. It’s not too late to donate to make her party really great!

Just because she can

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Jamie is someone to be admired for a few different reasons. She has, in many ways, overcome her terrible past, and she has established herself as the leader of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees. She is strong and knows what she wants. She seems to have a pretty good grasp of both chimpanzee and human behavior and uses this knowledge to her advantage whenever she can. And she doesn’t back down from a challenge, whether it comes from outside or it’s a personal challenge of her own inspiration.

Today, for example, Jamie had one of her favorite boots in the world, given to her practically off of his own feet by the Gallagher Fence representative. She carried the boot with her all day, even when she went out for her adventures on Young’s Hill. At one point, she spotted a piece of kale harvested from the garden (she’s been loving this kale!) that we had put on the treat rock. She got the piece of kale, but decided she wanted to climb the treat rock while holding the kale and her boot. A challenge!

She started on the south side of the rock

Jamie climbing treat rock

Jamie climbing treat rock 2

That proved difficult, so she scaled the rock from the front

Jamie climbing treat rock with boot in hand

She made it to the top and ate her kale

Then went right back down again

Jamie climb down treat rock

 

 

Calling for backup

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Yesterday, Jamie was sitting in the greenhouse when she saw a squirrel running across the hill. The squirrel made it back safely to its den before Jamie could catch up, but unfortunately for the squirrel, Jamie now knows the location of its den. So of course she went to work trying to flush him out with a couple of bamboo canes. Here’s what we found when we went into the enclosure today:

This afternoon, Missy was returning from a trip she made to collect grass from the hill when she heard a strange noise coming from the same area. In this video, you can see her calling Jamie for backup. When the noise ceased, Missy and Jamie gave up and returned to eat their grass in the greenhouse.