Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Missy

A Certain Point of View

by

One of the things I try to share whenever I write the blog is the unique experience of being here at the sanctuary. I am trying to capture and translate, as much as is possible with words, pictures, and video, the reality of being here now so that you might get the feeling of it. Today, as we were cleaning the greenhouse in the morning, I was inspired to try to capture the chimpanzees in the playroom from the vantage point of inside the greenhouse. Although it was a bit dark in there [this morning was cold, wet, and decidedly snowy] I was able to shoot a short video of Annie and Missy playing together in the loft. I love the sound of their play sessions, especially from above. If you were in the chimp house while this bout of play was going on you would hear the breathy-pants of chimpanzee laughter, the slaps of hands against each other and the floor, followed by the bounding stomping feet of chimpanzees in the midst of chase. I can not think of happier sounds than these!

Most of this video has no sound but turn up the volume at the end to see what fun it can be trying to film video when chimpanzees are involved. Enjoy!

Venturing Out

by

Before the chimpanzees go out onto Young’s Hill, they’ll sometimes stand at the door and contemplate for a moment. I often wonder what they’re thinking during this pause in their busy day. Considering that they spent the first few decades of their lives in tiny cages barely bigger than their bodies, I like to think they’re taking a moment to relish two acres of possibility.

web_Missy_near_raceway_YH_ek_IMG_8777

web_Missy_near_raceway_look_toward_camera_YH_ek_IMG_8778

Today the ground is wet from the melting snow, so Missy’s excursions outside were brief and purposeful.

web_Missy_on_log_bridge_pick_up_snow_YH_ek_IMG_8781

web_Missy_on_log_bridge_put_snow_in_mouth_YH_ek_IMG_8784

web_Missy_on_log_bridge_hold_eat_snow_YH_ek_IMG_8785

web_Missy_on_log_bridge_snow_in_mouth_YH_ek_IMG_8786

web_Missy_walk_on_log_bridge_toward_raceway_snow_in_mouth_YH_ek_IMG_8787

web_Missy_eat_snow_GH_ek_IMG_8789

web_Missy_eat_snow_in_mouth_GH_ek_IMG_8790

Lunch

by

For lunch today, caregiver Lisa served the chimpanzees corn, cauliflower, potatoes, cherry tomatoes, snow peas, and red onions.

Annie with a corn cob wadge (you can see that chimps don’t have the same hangups about “table manners” as we do):

web_Annie_corn_wadge_lunch_look_at_camera_PR_ek_IMG_8747

Negra with a mouthful of cauliflower glancing out the window on her way to her favorite spot on the catwalk:

web_Negra_cauliflower_in_mouth_eat_food_look_out_window_lunch_PR_ek_IMG_8703

Jody:

web_Jody_hold_eat_food_lunch_PR_ek_IMG_8689

Missy heading upstairs with her haul:

web_Missy_sit_at_base_of_stairs_hold_eat_food_lunch_PR_ek_IMG_8730

She settled in front of the window for a lunchtime view of the valley:

web_Missy_eat_food_look_out_window_lunch_PR_ek_IMG_8686

Missy and Life

by

I’m not sure why I thought of this today. Maybe it’s because The Share the Chimp Love heart is a photo of Missy and Jody kissing or maybe it’s because I was watching Missy and Foxie play today, or it could be because Debbie posted a photo of Annie and Missy on Instagram and Facebook earlier.

In any case, you may not have heard the story of how Missy almost didn’t make it to sanctuary. I use the phrase, “second chance at life” when talking about chimpanzees going to sanctuaries, but for Missy she very literally got a second chance at living.

About a month before the chimpanzees left Buckshire in Pennsylvania (the private facility that owned them and leased them to different laboratories for decades), all of the chimps had health check-ups. During these check-ups, the veterinarian discovered that Foxie and Missy had uterine tumors.

Buckshire quickly arranged for both of them to have hysterectomies. The surgeries went fine, but when they were transporting Missy back to Buckshire, she crashed. She was brought back to the veterinarian under manual ventilation and had a very weak pulse.  From what we were told, they “worked on her for 10 minutes and brought her back.”

We didn’t find out about this until later, and it came as a shock to know that she was so close to not having her chance to enjoy a sanctuary home. It remains a reminder to me that each moment of sanctuary, each moment of life, is invaluable.

Missy seems to have embraced this notion too. She certainly has a special zest for life.

Here is a look back at some photos of Missy over the last few years:

Missy in the transport cage on the truck that transported the chimpanzees from Pennsylvania to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest:

missy on transport cage

 

Missy (left) and Burrito on the day they arrived to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest (Missy’s belly is shaved, and you can see the scar from her hysterectomy that was done before she came:

Missy and Burrito first day

 

being groomed by her BFF Annie:

Annie grooming Missy

 

in action – leaping towards Jamie:

missy leaping

 

Missy (left) and Annie demonstrating chimpanzee smiles (notice their top teeth do not show at all):

missy annie smiling

 

doing a headstand before she lays down in her nest:

missy headstand in nest

 

looking a bit like a football player as she runs bipedal back to the greenhouse with a mouth and hands full of food:

missy bipedal with food

 

walking on the fire hose like a tightrope walker:

missy balance

 

riding the bamboo down after climbing up, with Jody looking on from below:

Missy climbing bamboo

 

a very familiar sight: Missy running across Young’s Hill

missy running on youngs hill

 

at the top of a post near the tall bamboo:

Missy top of post

 

just hanging out:

missy swing down

 

using a tool to get treats from the “termite mound” on Young’s Hill

Missy with tool termite mound

 

playing a raucous game of chase with Foxie (Foxie’s on the left):

Missy chase Foxie

 

with all of her activity, Missy does make time to rest too:

Missy on blanket

 

We have a special way for you to celebrate Missy and all of the lives of the chimpanzees by Sharing the Chimp Love this month. We’re now 21% towards our goal of raising $10,000! Watch and share the Share the Chimp Love video below and on the fundraising website.

Thank you to those who have made donations and set up fundraising pages! Check out the donors, their messages of love, and the fundraisers on the Share the Chimp Love site.

It’s Groundhog Day, Again

by

Okay, okay, yesterday was actually Groundhog Day but, as it happens, it was also GAME DAY so we may have been a little bit distracted! As it turns out, it appears the Groundhog has predicted 6 more weeks of winter. [And a Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl win! Oh, wait that wasn’t Punxsutawney Phil, that was me. Did I mention I love football?] Seahawks pride aside, the wind and the snow seem to be in agreement with the prognosticating rodent and have conspired to keep the chimpanzees primarily indoors today.

Annie, in the playroom, relaxing on the bridge:
web_Annie_close_up_lie_down_bridge_PR_ls_IMG_8469

Burrito, in the playroom, playing with a wooden toy:
web_Burrito_close_up_wooden_ghost_PR_ls_IMG_8473

Negra, in the playroom, lying down on the catwalk and watching Burrito from above:
web_Negra_close_blanket_PR_ls_IMG_8475

Foxie, in the playroom, observing the paparazzi:
web_Foxie_close_up_PR_ls_IMG_8464

Jody, in the front rooms, relaxing on a bench:
web_Jody_close_up_lie_down_paper_balls_bench_FR_ls_IMG_8454

Missy, also in the front rooms, relaxing on the bench:
web_Missy_close_up_lie_down_bench_FR_ls_IMG_8453

You may be wondering about Jamie’s whereabouts. I can assure you she was around and making her usual rounds but was in no mood to have her picture taken today. Since she is the boss, I was only too happy to oblige her request!

Shop AmazonSmile to help the chimps

by

Amazon.com recently launched a program called AmazonSmile. You may have noticed there’s a link to signing up on the sidebar of the blog that looks like this:

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

The simple explanation is that you follow that link and that leads you to a page to sign up for AmazonSmile and designate Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest as your charity to receive funds.

I signed up myself and wanted to explain a little bit more about how it works. The most important thing to know is that, in order for your purchases to help the chimps, you have to login in to smile.amazon.com (instead of just amazon.com) every time you shop.

So, you may as well take that link – smile.amazon.com and bookmark it. Once you’ve designated Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest as your chosen charity, when you sign in to shop it should look like this (yours won’t have the word “prime” if you don’t also use amazon prime):

amazon smile screenshot

Then you just shop normally and 0.5% of eligible purchases will go to the chimps! I haven’t shopped around too much to determine what purchases are eligible, but this is from amazon’s FAQ about the program: “Tens of millions of products on AmazonSmile are eligible for donations. You will see eligible products marked “Eligible for AmazonSmile donation” on their product detail pages.”

The donations through AmazonSmile will be made to us 45 days after a calendar quarter ends, so it will be a little while before we know how much we’ll be receiving.

And in case you had the clever idea of buying a bunch of stuff and returning it – amazon is way ahead of you – they will not count returned items in their donations.

Thanks for taking advantage of all of the many ways that you can help the chimpanzees. There are a few more listed here: www.chimpsnw.org/you_can_help/single/help-us-fundraise

And here’s some chimpanzee smiles from your favorite chimp BFF’s Annie & Missy:

web Missy annie smile play structure YH IMG_2658

Missy interrupts Annie making a nest

by

Missy is Annie’s best friend, but she is more dominant on the chimp hierarchy. Today she took Annie’s place in a huge paper nest Annie built (called “displacement”), but Annie didn’t get upset—instead, she started to play.