The day after Jamieween I happened upon everyone but Jamie surrounding the remains of the great Jamieween pumpkin. (If you’re new to the blog, Jamieween is what we call Halloween here at the sanctuary as it’s also the day we celebrate boss lady, Jamie’s, honorary birthday). It’s amazing how far one ginormous pumpkin can go. And even more amazing that the chimpanzees crowded around said ginormous pumpkin giving each other turns at sticking their heads in for ginormous bites of it with relatively few kerfuffles. Though as you will see, a certain rather small chimpanzee woman seemed to be pulling every trick in the chimpanzee communication book to wind up with the pumpkin a lot more often than everyone else. Maybe the most amazing thing is “How much pumpkin can one tiny chimpanzee hold?”
And if you’re wondering where the boss was in all of this, she was actually sitting calmly and watching from afar. See, the ironic (and now much anticipated) thing about Jamieween is that Jamie isn’t always super interested in her Jamieween pumpkin because she seems to have deemed other treats a higher priority. But that makes Jody (who for the last three (?) years running has made it her mission to heist the pumpkin as fast as she can, and eventually six other chimpanzees, extremely happy.
Foxie wound up with it first and as you can see from her smile (note bottom teeth only!) she is over the moon about it:
Foxie did a lot of whimpering and asking permission from her good friend, Jody, to keep the pumpkin for awhile which seemed to pay off as Jody was extra patient waiting her turn:
as Foxie ate…
and ate…
and ate…
But Jody eventually could wait no longer and dove right in:
Notice Annie in the background waiting to make her move. She was getting pretty impatient, but finally saw her chance.
Once Annie got ahold of the pumpkin she climbed to the top of the greenhouse with it which Jody wasn’t entirely pleased about. Missy swung up to check things out and with much pleading from Annie (as Missy is more dominant than she is) she kindly allowed Annie to keep it. In the end, everyone got to share in the prize and Queen Negra wound up claiming the last chunk for herself.
Bonus photos of the day!
Negra enjoying breakfast in bed this morning:
Watching all those other foolish chimpanzees racing off onto the hill where it’s cold and there’s no breakfast:
Jamie supervising one of the gentleman painting her home and giving her nod of approval:
And dearest Foxie napping this afternoon:
