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News

Keep Jody in Your Thoughts

April 30, 2023 by Diana

Today is my 50th birthday, and originally I was going to post about that milestone, the last 15 years of my life at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, and the GiveBIG fundraiser that ends on May 3rd.

Unfortunately, I have some other, more challenging news, to share with you all.

Jody was found not moving in one of the front rooms on her side of the building. Dr. Erin was able to do an exam quickly and we obtained x-rays and drew blood, but these did not tell us what exactly is going on. You can imagine, if you know Erin at all, that she has been on the phone constantly, consulting with veterinarians and human doctors across the continent and trying to arrange for an MRI and spinal tap for poor JoJo. Her symptoms are consistent with a cervical spinal injury. There was not a conflict and no obvious signs that she fell (though we can’t rule that out), so it’s possible there’s just something happening within her body that is impacting her spine. An MRI will tell us more, and we hope to get her to an amazing clinic Tuesday morning if not earlier.

I know everyone who just read those words are absorbing a lot right now. I’m so sorry. I know how much you care and that this is not what you want to be learning about today.

This is one of the hardest aspects of caring for anyone, and there are things about caring for captive chimpanzees that make these situations more challenging. It’s very difficult to see Jody in this state. She is a strong-willed, independent, no-nonsense chimpanzee who, I think, would be happy to have never met a human being, and now she is dependent on us in ways that she never could have or wanted to imagine. That’s not to say that she doesn’t have friendships with the humans in her life. She does. Us humans are doing everything we can to convey to her that all we want to do is help, and to comfort her in ways that continue to respect her independence and dignity and show our love to her, Jody, the chimpanzee person we know.

We don’t have enough information to provide a definitive prognosis or to answer the many questions you probably have.

We know of many other chimpanzees in sanctuary settings who have been in a similar states and made partial or even full recoveries. For this reason, and because we have seen the indomitable will of chimpanzees in action before, we are cautiously holding onto some hope.

Jody is a 47 year old chimpanzee who has embraced the last fifteen years of her sanctuary life with her eyes wide open in wonder and her arms full of sanctuary abundance – be that blankets or food foraged from Young’s Hill. Please think of her this way.

And definitely do consider making a GiveBIG donation in her honor. It seems almost crass to suggest that, but the reality is that your donations provide Jody with the care that she needs. Without donors, Jody would not have had the last fifteen years that she was afforded at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. There’s a reason we chose the image below as our main GiveBIG image this year. Just look at how much happiness she was experiencing as the camera shutter clicked when this image was taken:

Here are some more Jody moments that supporters made possible:

Filed Under: Jody, News, Sanctuary, Veterinary Care Tagged With: illness, Jody, News

More ways to follow us

February 25, 2014 by Debbie

If you are on Facebook, you’ve probably seen a few pictures posted from our new Instagram account. If you have Instagram, please start following us @chimpsanctuary! Today, I posted this picture, with the caption “Guess who?” And I’d like to pose that question to our blog readers as well. So, go ahead and guess! After you figure it out, I will post more pictures of that chimp later today!

UPDATE: It’s Burrito 🙂 Scroll down to see his pretty cute face.

web-guess_who

If you aren’t on Facebook or Instagram, but you regularly read the blog, you might have noticed on the right hand sidebar that there’s a new link to a page called News on Apes. This is simply a feed of news stories (with links to the original articles) all in one place for any issue apes are facing in the news. If something noteworthy comes out on chimps in entertainment or biomedical research, or conservation issues for wild gorillas, chimps, and orangutans—we will post it there. Subscribe to get an email notification any time we post a link to a new article, to stay updated on what is going on with apes around the world.

web_Burrito_chin_on_hand_sit_on_bench_FR_ls_IMG_9107

web_Burrito_bite_hand_look_toward_window_FR_ls_IMG_9110

Filed Under: Advocacy, Burrito, Play, Sanctuary Tagged With: advocacy, animal protection, animal rescue, animal rights, apes, Cle Elum Seven, conservation, csnw, eyes on apes, instagram, News, Sanctuary

In depth story from KOMO

September 7, 2012 by Diana

KOMO News (ABC Channel 4 in Seattle) has shared a longer, in depth video and interviews about the Taylor Bridge Fire at the sanctuary. They put the video on their website here.

You can watch it below and you can email KOMO to thank them for sharing the original story at this address: [email protected]

Filed Under: News, Sanctuary, Young's Hill Tagged With: chimp, chimpanzee, csnw, fire, komo, News, nortwest, nw, Sanctuary, seattle, taylor bridge, video

KOMO 4 News Story

September 4, 2012 by Diana

Here’s the link to the Seattle KOMO 4 News story that aired tonight: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Chimpanzees-survive-close-call-with-Cle-Elum-wildfire-168549526.html

Eric Johnson and videographer Eric Jensen did a great job with this story and we were so glad to have them out again today.

I should admit that J.B. dreamed up and built Young’s Hill. I did encourage him… and I helped by setting a few fence posts, along with dozens of volunteers. And the sanctuary itself was started by Keith LaChappelle and a team of people who came together to make it possible.

Thanks to everyone for continuing to support the journey of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees. Everyone who has supported us over the years is part of the sanctuary – we are thankful to you all and now also to the firefighters who did, indeed, protect the dream.

Foxie hug Dora on climbing structure

We were thrilled to see Foxie scale that post today and even more thrilled that her accomplishment made it on TV! Every day there’s some new step that the chimps take or new discovery that they make – that’s what sanctuary is all about.

Filed Under: News, Sanctuary, Thanks, Young's Hill Tagged With: chimp, chimpanzee, dora the explorer, eric jensen, eric johnson, fire, Foxie, komo, News, seattle, taylor bridge, tv, young's hill

Link to King 5 story from today

August 31, 2012 by Diana

Here is the link to the King 5 story that just aired: http://bit.ly/PyfMes

and here’s a photo of that sad relic from the fire:

burned troll doll

We are so grateful to the firefighters for all they did making sure everyone was safe and for all of our volunteers and supporters who have gotten us through the last few weeks in so many ways. I think the burned but still smiling troll doll will be a reminder of the fire for years to come.

Filed Under: News, Sanctuary, Thanks, Trolls Tagged With: chimp, chimpanzee, csnw, KING 5, News, northwest, Sanctuary, taylor bridge fire, troll dolls

Chimps back on Young’s Hill

August 31, 2012 by Diana

We opened the door to let the chimps back onto Young’s Hill for the first time since the Taylor Bridge Fire hit the sanctuary property on August 13th. Gary Chittim and Ken Jones from King 5 were here to do a story today. You can see footage of the chimps’ excitement and steps out on the hill on King 5 News at 6:30pm in Seattle and online after the story airs (we’ll be sure to share the link once it’s on the web).

The chimpanzees  haven’t been asking to go out much since the fire, which is a surprise, since they generally “remind us” in the mornings to open the door by standing by it and getting our attention or luring us over and sticking their fingers through the caging where the door opens.

J.B. and volunteers Brian and John have worked to clean up the hill by removing burned logs, reinforcing a damaged fence post, and dragging (tilling, in effect) the charred ground that covered half of the enclosure. J.B. found a sad relic on the hill that Gary Chittim will show on the King 5 broadcast tonight.

All of the staff joined in a final check of the hill yesterday afternoon so we were ready and anxious to give the chimps access after setting up a breakfast forage.

The chimps mostly stuck to the unburned areas.

Below is a photo of Jamie bringing a wrench out with her on to the hill. Maybe J.B. forgot to fix something?

Jamie with wrench

 

And here she is with the burned ground in the background:

jamie yh burned ground background

 

Annie did inspect the burned grass a bit:

annie exploring burned grass

 

And Missy ventured into the starkness of the top of the hill that was charred in the fire. You can see a ring of green grass coming up – that’s where the underground irrigation lines run to water the bamboo. We lost about half of the smaller bamboo in the fire:

missy on burned ground

 

Filed Under: Annie, Jamie, Missy, News, Sanctuary, Young's Hill Tagged With: chimp, chimpanzee, csnw, fire, gary chittim, habitat, KING 5, king5, News, northwest, Sanctuary, seattle, taylor bridge

KOMO 4 News Broadcast

September 26, 2011 by Diana

Watch the broadcast footage that was aired on Seattle’s KOMO News last night and will air again tonight at 6pm: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/130546448.html

Thanks to Eric Johnson for reporting and Eric Jensen and Sara Givens for filming!

 

P.S. J.B. Mulcahy hasn’t changed his last name – it was just a little mistake. We are married, but have different last names.

Filed Under: News, Young's Hill Tagged With: abc, chimp, chimpanzee, freedom, komo, News, northwest, Sanctuary, young's hill

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