Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Jamie

Happy Birthday, Jamie!!

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Ramona Isbell sponsored this special day of sanctuary in honor of our boss lady, Jamie, in celebration of her honorary 40th birthday! Or as it’s better known in the CSNW world, Jamieween! Ramona sent this message about her wonderful gift:

“Happy 40th Birthday Jamie! You and your friends have a blast of a day!! Love you, Ramona”

Jamie is one of the most intelligent, creative, willful, courageous people we know and we couldn’t have more admiration for her. With each passing year that we’re honored to know her, she surprises us with her beauty, strength, resiliency and adventurous and often mischievous – sometimes a little scary – spirit (hence, why we chose Halloween to celebrate her birthday!). You can learn more about Jamie here!

Ramona, thank you so very much for sponsoring today in honor of Jamie! It’s a celebration we look forward to all year long and we so appreciate your compassion and generosity in making Jamie’s day extra special for her and her chimp family!

Happy Jamieween, Jamie!! You are an incredibly special person and we love you so much! Here’s to a day and many years ahead of endless patrols around the hill (even in the pitch dark) for your adventurous soul (and of course, more cowboy boots than you or your caregivers could ever hope to wear on those adventures), projects and activities for your brilliant mind, and freedom and choice to express your amazing and creative heart. We love you, Jamie!!

Happy Jamieween Ramona and everyone!

A lavender haired troll

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The chimps have been enjoying another low-key beautiful autumn day and when they aren’t zooming around Young’s Hill, they are napping in a sun puddle somewhere. Many of the chimps chose to nest at the top of the sunny greenhouse for much of the day and among them we noticed a popular lavender-haired companion.

Annie:

Negra:

Good thing the chimps are resting up and enjoying these golden days because the chimp house is all a flurry with preparations for “Jamieween” tomorrow, Jamie’s 40th birthday! Pumpkins are roasting, gift bags are being stuffed and new cowboy boots are being shined. Happy Jamieween Eve everyone!!

T-Minus 2 Days

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The countdown to the spooktacular Jamieween has begun and we only have 2 more days left. The anticipation has been building and there are a lot of excited chimps and humans waiting for Tuesday to come. The chimps have been very active this morning and everyone has been exploring Young’s Hill. Unfortunately there were not many photo opportunities, but the chimps decided to save some energy for Jamieween and have been napping and grooming the rest of the afternoon.

 

Jamie walking the hill and staring out at the view (there were some cows in the field across the highway):

Burrito playing with one of our volunteer caregivers:

Negra:

Jody grooming herself:

 

There is still time to celebrate Jamie’s big day by becoming Chimp Pals with Jamie or any of her friends!

 

On Rainy Days

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For most of the day it was pouring down rain at CSNW. To pass the time until the rain cleared the chimps tried to keep themselves busy with their favorite activities. Foxie played with her new dolls, Annie and Missy groomed, Negra and Jody napped, Jamie supervised volunteers and staff while they cleaned, and Burrito played with his scooter and a slinky. For lunch volunteers prepared green onions, roasted beets, and roasted potatoes. Nothing sounds better than warm food on a cold day. The rain finally cleared which meant it was time to put some boots on and walk. All in all we had a nice quiet rainy day at CSNW.

An exciting lunch:

Annie observing quietly in the cargo net:

Annie:

Jody:

Jody:

Jamie:

Jamie:

Negra:

 

Walking with Jamie and Burrito

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The day after the success of Giving Day for Apes was a beautiful fall day at the sanctuary. I joke that the chimpanzees are truly Pacific Northwest chimps because they seem to love cool overcast days the most.

Whenever I go up to the chimp house, I expect that I will go on a walk with Jamie – it’s what she likes to do. On this day, Burrito was even more eager to walk than Jamie! In fact, as the video reveals, the three of us did three rounds around the hill, with some meandering in between for those two.

I know that Burrito had no idea we were promoting his story and people were donating in his honor, but it was fitting that he was in such a great, enthusiastic, full-of-life, mood.

Thank you again for everyone who donated and helped exceed our goal!

Enjoy your walk with Burrito and Jamie!

 

 

Crisp days and spooky nights

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We’ve already seen some snow in the surrounding mountains and apparently have a long stretch of rain on the way, but for now the days have been dawning with beautiful blue skies and crisp, frosty mornings. Despite being able to see our breath in the morning air, the chimps have been loving being on Young’s Hill and waiting to warm up in the bright sun:

Peas-in-a-pod, Annie and Missy, climbed up together to enjoy the view in the cold autumn air:

Jody sat for ages in the morning sun then ventured up the hill for a snack to bring back to the top of the greenhouse where she could warm up:

And much to my surprise, when Jamie and I were returning from a walk around the hill, I spotted Negra of all people enjoying the sun and the view despite the cold temperatures:

I think Foxie was just as surprised to spot Negra out on such a brisk morning and decided she and her current favorite doll would check in on Negra:

Double-decker chimps:

In other news, Jamie has been doing something new this year! As a little background, if you’ve been a follower of the blog for very long you are probably aware that Jamie often enjoys late evening strolls with her caregivers. After dinner, after the other chimps have gone to bed, and past the time that her caregivers are supposed to go home for the day. We can’t blame her, evenings at the sanctuary are lovely, peaceful times and during summer a welcome relief from the heat of the day. We’ve adjusted our schedule so that we all rotate to cover PM on call in the evenings and two of us can be with her in the event that she (or anyone else) chooses to stay out past the end of our shift. This is one of many beauties of sanctuary; the chimps get to choose when they want to come in for the night. And it’s really a heartfelt joy and honor to be able to provide such a home for them.

Up until this year, we knew that even if Jamie wanted to stay out late, once it got dark she was ready to come inside. Well, that’s no longer the case! Back in August, and again last night, Jamie decided to brave walking around the hill with us in the pitch dark! The first time Jamie did this she was clearly nervous, but clearly wanted to go so Kelsi and I grabbed the spotlight and scanned the hill for her so she could see everything and know she was safe. It took her awhile to build up her courage, but once she made up her mind we were off! Kelsi held a light for us to see where we were going while I held the spotlight just ahead of Jamie to light her path. At every corner of the perimeter we’d stop and I’d light up the entire path ahead of her to remind her she was safe and then we’d venture on.

It’s phenomenal to me when I think how much courage this took for her to do. Not only is it entirely unnatural for a chimp to be on the ground outside in the dark (let alone one who spent three decades in a small cage in biomedical research), but she had to trust us enough to hold the light for her all the way around and not leave her. But once we made our way safely around she was thrilled, ready to go again! We walked around and around that night, carving a path with the light until 10:30!

So last night Jamie decided she was ready for another brave adventure. In the spirit of spooky, magical autumn nights and the month of Jamie-ween (we celebrate Jamie’s birthday on Halloween) here is Jamie in the pitch dark of the green house last night gesturing for Kelsi and I to put on the cowboy boots and get ready to run around the hill again. To say she was thrilled with the evening is an understatement. You can see the light from the chimp house through the doorway behind her where everyone else was cozy and asleep in their night nests. And what better way to celebrate Jamie’s birthday month and get into the spirit of Jamie-ween than a photo a little reminiscent of the “Blair Chimp Project”: