Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
If you feel like you’re being watched when you arrive at the sanctuary, it’s because you definitely are. No one is more on the alert than Jamie Chimpanzee. She knows when the UPS truck has arrived (long before we hear the doorbell ring). She knows when someone is feeding the cows on the neighboring property, and she definitely knows when we have welders arrive whose boots haven’t been properly inspected by her yet.
Today is our 9th annual Love a Chimpanzee Day! This holiday was born in the imagination of one of the chimps’ longtime friends, but that doesn’t make it any less real to us.
This year we decided to celebrate by offering each of the chimpanzees something they love.
I don’t know about you guys, but Easter morning in my house was the best! Scouring the inside and outside of the house for Easter eggs before your brother or sister got to them, looking through an Easter basket, and eating those eggs you worked so hard dyeing! So, this morning the first thing the chimps got to do was have an Easter egg hunt! A lot of work goes into our parties for the chimps. We at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest are lucky enough to have so many amazing volunteers. They are SO awesome that, as some of you might have seen on Facebook, one of our volunteers made the chimps’ Easter baskets by hand!
Our volunteers are a major reason why parties go so smoothly. They help prep days before and the day of, and help us clean the day after.
Volunteer Miranda hiding Easter eggs out on Young’s Hill:
Volunteer Alan planting carrots in the ground for the Easter forage:
Before the festivities could start we needed to give out some routine things like vitamins, smoothie, and meds. Volunteer Lizz also got to serve a tasty surprise for the chimps. The chimps got to have hard boiled eggs! The eggs came from staff caregiver Anna’s happy pet chickens . They don’t get them that often, but when they do, they love them!
It was really hard to decide what photos to choose for the blog today. There were so many good ones, I hope you all enjoy our Easter party!
Annie:
Burrito:
Foxie and her doll:
Missy:
Negra:
Jamie:
Searching for eggs:
But Jody really won this Easter egg hunt. She made out with a lot of loot and I never saw Jody without one of those baskets in her hands either!
  
I am pretty sure today is the warmest we’ve had yet this spring! The chimps have been assuming their good ol’ summertime positions in the greenhouse, stretched out, legs in the air, baking in the yet unaccustomed to “heat”. There has been time spent outside among the greening of the hill and time spent inside napping in the warm afternoon. Jamie in particular spent a lot of time having one of her treasured caregivers look through her books with her and brush her hair while she dozed. It was pretty endearing to say the least.
After lunch she grabbed her beloved boot pillow and books and eventually fell sound, sound asleep.
Today’s choice of reading material was a new bird book, a vegetarian cookbook and cooking magazines:
Holding her foot:
Jamie was in for quite a surprise today. A very kind friend sent Jamie a package of her favorite things. There was a folio and bag filled with pictures of boots, pictures of Jamie wearing boots, books of other primates, and a calendar of some oh so cute pit bulls! Jamie was satisfied all day! So satisfied that I have barely seen her. Like guys, she didn’t even ask for a walk today! On top of getting such a great package, Jamie also got to supervise activities going on in the new expansion area. Jamie had a really hard time choosing between lounging in her extravagant nest and enjoying her new gifts or observing what was going on in the other room! Watching the chimps get excited about their favorite things always warms my heart. Enrichment really does help these 7 chimpanzees’ lives. So thank you everyone for your support!
I mean doesn’t this just scream Jamie:
Jamie perusing the goods:
Jamie incorporating her favorite things of the day into her nest:
Time to relax:
A look at her amazing and intricate nest:
However, there were people unsupervised on the job so Jamie had to go back to work:
And one extra photo of Jody laying all sprawled out:
Jamie Chimpanzee, AKA The Boss
Age:41
Favorite foods: Grapes and leeks
BFF: Foxie
Special talents: Persuading her human subjects to do her every bidding, using tools like a pro!
Favorite place to nap: In a huge complicated nest on the ground so she can keep an eye on everyone.
Favorite activities: Walking around Young’s Hill with friends, working on special projects made just for her, trying to undo any home improvements her caregivers have worked on in her enclosure.
Favorite food puzzle: Anything that is a good challenge for her to solve (and hoard).
We’ve been so busy in the chimp house today! Staff and some amazing volunteers raked out all the wood chips and straw in the greenhouse and replaced it with fresh shiny wood chips and straw! 🙂 What didn’t happen, was capturing any good photos. However, a few days ago I captured some photos of Jamie in one of her secret fort building modes and while they aren’t great quality, I do think they’re endearing. She’s always surprising us with her architectural feats and her desire to occasionally build “secret hideout” forts which are incredibly creative and amusing. Maybe she’s been feeling inspired by her Dwell magazines.
And once again we indulged her need to go incognito and pretended we couldn’t find her. I mean, we all need to hide out now and again. “Jamie?? Jamie? Where are you?”
