This morning, I was trying to take photos of Foxie playing with her troll dolls outside when something in the window caught my eye. It was Jody, licking the condensation off the glass.
northwest
A nest with a view
The other day, someone made a beautiful nest by one of the upstairs windows with a mix of blankets and timothy hay. I am guessing this was Missy’s. She is a nesting perfectionist and often builds the walls so high that she disappears into them. Many chimps will lay directly on the floor and build the nest around them, but Missy makes sure hers has a nice cushioned bottom.
What always amazes me about chimp nests is that everything is so interwoven that you can almost pick them up whole. This, of course, comes from the instinct to weave branches together securely to keep from falling out of the trees at night. Jamie often builds her nests next to the caging, and she will take the ends of the blankets and weave them through the wire mesh. Her nests take a lot of time to deconstruct!
Greenhouse construction continues
More progress on the greenhouse, thanks to Jim and John Spencer. Today was cold, but when the sun was out you could imagine how nice it will be inside once we’re done.
Music
This morning, Jamie played the piano as we cleaned. Later, she played backup for Eddie Vedder.
Through The Looking Glass
Today was a really nice day, so I was able to give the chimps access to their Outdoor Enclosure and their Front Rooms while Elizabeth and I cleaned the Playroom. Almost everyone was playing outside at some point, and they were very interested in playing with us through the new glass window. This has been such a wonderful addition to the sanctuary. It must be SO nice to look out and not see bars! And they’ve created a very fun (and distracting!) new game to boot!
Troll rescue
Foxie pulled an Indiana Jones this morning. I was letting the chimps out to the playroom after breakfast, and Foxie was the last one through the door, with her giant troll in tow. Just as I closed the door behind her, she seemed to realize that she had left a few other trolls behind. She wheeled around and looked through the closed door for her missing dolls with a slightly panicked look. I reopened the door, and she flew through the room, gathering all of her trolls with her free hand. She was back out the door before I even finished opening it!
Of course I didn’t catch that on camera, but I did take some photos of Foxie yesterday:
Who’s in your wallet
This is in response to a question from Shari on the last post. Below are the images of all of the credit card options with the chimpanzees names above them. We can only have five designs at a time, and Jody is not one of the images. I decided since her image is on most of our merchandise (t-shirts, soon-to-be-added bumper stickers, and tote bags), it was okay to leave her out of this first round of designs. Thanks for helping out the sanctuary by applying for one of these cards!
Burrito
Negra
Missy and Annie
Foxie
Jamie
