Cooler temperatures at the sanctuary mean more frequent (and fast paced) walks on Young’s Hill!
Jody
Annie’s Birthday Extravaganza!
Today is Annie’s 43rd Birthday! We are so fortunate to know Annie – she is a sweet, playful, and loyal friend to humans and non-humans. We celebrated her today with a fun forage full of veggies, chow, roasted onions, and smoothie in the greenhouse and Young’s Hill. Annie also really LOVES kale especially from our garden. It was quite the party!
Annie standing bipedally while foraging on the hill:
Annie found some delicious kale from our garden:
Burrito scored a few presents:
Burrito (wonder what he found inside):
Annie enjoying a plate of corn and broccoli with a side of socks:
Jamie drinking smoothie:
Jamie unwrapping a present:
Jamie holding some boots in her pelvic pocket:
Negra basking in the sun and foraging:
Birthday girl (Annie):
Missy:
Jody eating some leeks from our garden:
Annie enjoying her kale:
Foxie eating chow:
Annie found one last plate:
Going Through the Archives
Thought I’d share a few photos from the last few weeks at the sanctuary.
Jody relaxing in the playroom:
Jamie surveying Young’s Hill from the top platform in the greenhouse:
Firefighters from the Jolly Mountain Fire presenting Jamie with her own pair of firefighting boots:
Missy discovering a tomato stash during a lunch forage on Young’s Hill:
Burrito:
Annie:
Annie’s hand holding some bell peppers:
Negra eating an onion on Young’s Hill:
Foxie with Dora:
The chimps are still doing fine!
Thanks for all the concern from supporters. We wanted to let you all know we are okay and still far from the Jolly Mountain burning in the Cle Elum area. Check out Diana’s post from Saturday for more information.
We haven’t had a lot change since her post, so thankfully the sanctuary is still safe and out of harms way. There has been a lot of smoke affecting all of the Pacific Northwest and beyond, but the chimps have been doing fine with it. The chimps spend a lot of time indoors anyway, but are choosing the ventilated space maybe a little bit more than usual. We have been adding supplements to help bolster their immune system and have been monitoring their behavior for any respiratory changes. Thanks to all who have reached out to us and we are thinking positive thoughts for our community in this stressful time.
Don’t worry, Jody is still keeping herself nice and relaxed.
The slow days of summer
Hot days call for lounging, moving as little as possible and waiting for any and every breeze.
Diana captured these priceless photos of Jody:
Foxie got a new wild purple haired troll doll and chose to lie next to the caging for a game of pass the troll so as to move as little as possible:
The Birthday Tomato Queen
Today we celebrated Missy’s 42nd birthday and the amazing chimp woman she is, so naturally we’ve been partying all day long!
If you know Missy, you know that she thinks tomatoes are the.best.thing.ever! So naturally, we bought more tomatoes than we thought one small chimp woman could possibly eat. $42 worth to be exact. Missy was beside herself when she saw them all this morning! These are of course meant to stretch out for a couple days (our plan, not hers), but we still served tomatoes with every meal. And she still thought it wasn’t enough.
We planned an indoor/outdoor forage brunch party with fresh fruits, veggies, and primate chow to compliment the tomatoes along with sparkling cider and pineapple coconut juice and everyone seemed pretty pleased with the festivities. Though I didn’t include a photo of her, Jamie was on the go drinking up all the juice.
Missy with a mouthful of cherry tomatoes:
Missy’s bestie, Annie, with a treat bag:
Negra with a mouthful of corn:
Missy on the go, foraging:
Burrito:
Jody:
We also scattered forage with lots of tomatoes on Young’s Hill with some special hothouse tomatoes still on the vine high up on the shaky bridge – a classic Missy spot – in the hopes she’d be the one to find them. Foxie is right up there with Missy as far as tomato connoisseurs go and they ended up being the only two who decided to venture onto the hill for the outdoor portion of the forage. They headed out together and played it cool so as not to attract the attention of the others.
Foxie found a whole tomato and quietly looked around to make sure no one was watching before popping the entire thing in her mouth. And you may not be able to see, but she’s rubbing her toes together which is Foxie speak for pure happiness and contentment:
Here she is hiding behind a post as she enjoys her secret tomatoes:
Missy searched high and low (and she did find the tomatoes on the vine!):
The Birthday Tomato Queen herself. We love you Miss! Happy Birthday and sweet tomato dreams. Rest up! There’s more tomatoes to eat tomorrow!
Never Assume
When training new volunteers and staff, learning to identify the chimps is very important. The chimps all have distinguishing features about them. Staff will try to give helpful pointers to help figure out who is who. For example, Foxie has what looks like a bow tie on her swelling, some chimps have defined brow ridges like Jody, and Missy is petite and has a short neck. Some have freckles, permanently crazy bed hair, different body types, and others have scars or pieces of ears or toes missing. There is also the way that they carry themselves. Jamie often walks with confidence and always looks like she is 3 steps ahead of you. You can often find certain chimps in a particular area that they like or holding specific enrichment they are fond of. For example, Negra loves to make a nest on the second floor in the corner of the playroom. However, this is where it gets tricky and why we tell staff and volunteers to judge only by physical characteristics and not by what we know they like or where “their spot” is. I have also seen little Miss nesting in the same spot as Negra! Jamie loves boots and Foxie always has a doll with her, but they like to throw us curve balls! I often find someone else holding a doll like Jamie or even today I spotted Negra holding a troll doll and putting it in her pelvic pocket. We train our staff and volunteers to take their time identifying the chimps, get to know the chimps, and especially their physical characteristics!
Negra: Holding a troll doll
