Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Missy and Life

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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.

Power

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It’s impossible to overstate just how much power Jamie has over the staff and volunteers at CSNW. Sometimes, as I walk up the driveway to the chimp house in the morning, I find myself saying a silent prayer to the chimp gods that she is in a good mood. And if she isn’t, I pray that her attention will be directed at someone other than me.

But the chimp gods don’t seem to hear me, because this is the face that often greets us.

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Or worse, this:

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This is when you know it’s going to be a long day.

My love and admiration for Jamie is limitless. She is brilliant and creative and brave. But she also possesses a thirst for power and control unlike anyone I have ever known.

In the normal course of life at the sanctuary, Jamie and I sometimes find ourselves disagreeing about what should be done. I think Foxie should be given a banana, Jamie does not. I think I should open the chimps’ door to the greenhouse, Jamie does not. I think I should be able to stand at the sink and quietly scrub the chimps’ toys, Jamie does not.

When Jamie disagrees, she makes sure she is understood. In fights with the other chimps, she usually wins simply by screaming louder and longer than anyone else, but she’s not afraid to get physical if need be. She makes her opinion known to her caregivers with a mouthful of water or a handful of feces. And let me tell you, I don’t care how strongly you believe in doing something…flying feces always has a way of making you reconsider.

This particular character trait is not something I would look for in a human friend (especially the feces throwing). But with Jamie, it makes me admire her even more. How on earth did someone so in need of control and power, so determined to be respected by humans and chimps alike, ever survive life in the laboratory?

There needs to be a chimp equivalent to the word “dehumanizing,” because that’s what life was for her. You could see it in her eyes when we first met her in the lab.

web Jamie at Buckshire

And if you couldn’t see it in her eyes, surely you couldn’t miss it tattooed across her chest.

web Jamie chest tattoo

When the chimps first came to the sanctuary, I was so excited. But I can barely look at those photos of her now. She looks so powerless.

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I always wonder what the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees would be like if they had lived in the wild. If they had been raised by their mothers. If they had raised their own children. How much of the chimpanzees we know and love would we recognize?

I have a feeling Jamie would still have been a force to be reckoned with. I think it’s in her bones. But she would have been able to play by chimpanzee rules in a chimpanzee society, without ever knowing the indignity and humiliation of life in captivity.

To us, sanctuary is all about finding what each individual chimpanzee needs to be happy. And for Jamie, that’s easy…total and absolute power.

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So if being grumpy makes her happy, that’s cool with us.

web Jamie sit log bridge beneath structure YH IMG_6302

 

 

Sharing the Chimp Love

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We just launched our February Share the Chimp Love campaign, and we’re 10% towards our goal of raising $10,000!

Have you seen the Share the Chimp Love video yet? If not – go check it out, read about the campaign, make a donation, and set up your own fundraising page to start sharing the love! We could use your help!

Share the love

If you’re signed up for our e-newsletter, you got the notice this morning about our Share the Chimp Love campaign, as well as other exciting events and news like the March 1st Grapes for Apes wine tasting and a story about Annie. If you’re not signed up for our e-news, you can sign up at the bottom of the newsletter.

Go here now to Share the Chimp Love: love.chimpsnw.org

Negra with seeds on her belly

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It’s no secret that Negra has a big place in my heart. I first wrote about my love for her in this blog post from 2008, before the chimpanzees had made the journey across the U.S. to come to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. She has many endearing qualities, including her enjoyment in watching her caregivers dance (as shown in the Dancing with Negra video from 2009), the multiple stages of her droopy lip, and her love of the night bags that we give the chimpanzees after dinner each night (there’s a short video of Negra getting her night bag here).

As mentioned in this post, one of my favorite sights is a very content Negra eating her night bag while the shells of the seeds in the night bag drop on her belly. Tonight, I finally got a few good photos of just this. Negra has lost a little weight at the sanctuary, but, despite our attempts at rationing her food, she still has a buddha belly. She actually eats quite a bit less than the other chimpanzees and isn’t as food focused as, say, Burrito, but she’s also the least active of the chimpanzees. I consider Negra’s shape to be a pretty endearing quality in itself.

I hope these photos make you as happy as Negra with seeds are her belly makes me.

Negra with night bag

Negra eating night bag

Negra eating night bag

Negra eating night bag goodies

Negra looking at camera with night bag

 

 

Happy Lunar New Year!

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The CSNW party planners were at it again today, helping the chimps celebrate the first day of the Year of the Horse. Volunteers Patti and Stephanie brought decorations and food, as well as a special new toy for Burrito, and interns Larkin, Julie, and Whitney helped prepare for the party.

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The festivities began in the playroom after cleaning. Jamie went right to work opening the “firecracker” gifts, and Missy inspected the decorations.

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At lunchtime, the party moved to the greenhouse. Annie gathered snap peas from the party boxes.

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Negra filled her mouth with eggplant, then added a crayon for good measure.

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Thankfully, she saved a little for Foxie.

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Jody seemed to enjoy the lemongrass. We weren’t sure if the chimps had ever had it before.

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And Burrito was in his element. There is no purer form of happiness on this earth than Burrito with a mouthful of food. He started with the party boxes.

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Then he foraged for chow in the straw.

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He ended up with more food than he could hold on to. This made him even happier.

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For Burrito and the rest of the Seven, it doesn’t matter what holiday they are celebrating. Any day is an excuse for new toys, good food, and the company of friends. And lucky for them, our volunteers provided all three!

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Shop AmazonSmile to help the chimps

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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

Routines

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The routine of each chimp house day that we’ve established with the chimpanzees allows them to know what to expect, and allows us to do the eight+ hours of work efficiently. But it’s not just the humans who have their routines. I’m always delighted to participate or witness a chimpanzee-created routine, like Jody’s morning greeting or Foxie’s after dinner, casual “give and take the troll” game.

Jamie’s routine of walking around Young’s Hill is probably one of the most written about aspects of our chimp-driven activities, but there’s one aspect of the walks that I really love because it seems to give Jamie so much pleasure. She doesn’t always do it, but more often than not, when Jamie takes me on a walk (which is really the way it goes), there’s a spot on the far side of the hill where she will veer away from the perimeter. She’ll walk on the log bridge over there or wander in the bamboo. I usually walk a little further and then wait. When she’s done with her lone exploration, she  comes barreling out, heading directly toward me. She doesn’t do this in an aggressive manner, though it was somewhat intimidating the first time I witnessed this; and I’m glad, for her sake and mine, that she is secure behind two tall electric fences. She just really seems to find it great fun to come out of hiding and run quickly towards her walking companion, and then continue the rest of the way around the perimeter.

I got a few photos of this today. They’re not award-winning images, but hopefully with the story behind them, you’ll have a better sense of what they are about.

Here’s an establishing photo to show what the landscape has looked like around the property for the last week or so. It’s not snow, it’s hoarfrost, the rather pretty cause of our power outage the other day. The cold temperature did not stop Jamie from walking around the hill twice today. These photos are from our second walk

hoarfrost above young's hill

Here’s Jamie leaving the perimeter:

Jamie walking away from perimeter

and here she is bursting out of hiding:

Jamie walk frost background

jamie running frost background

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