Missy and Foxie shaking things and shaking themselves. Just watch:
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Objects of Desire
First of all, I would like to direct your attention to the right side of this page. If you scroll down, past the announcements and look just past the e-newsletter sign-up, you will see a newly added feature to our blog! You can now plug your email address into that box over the “subscribe” button, click “subscribe,” then check your email. You should receive a notice from wordpress.com very quickly (check your spam folder if it doesn’t show up in a few minutes), then you just follow the directions in that email and, voila – you’ll receive blog posts by email as soon as they are posted! And there’s a button right at the bottom of the email when you get a blog post to click in order to comment on the post. It’s pretty cool. You should try it out.
Now, I’d like to direct your attention to Jamie…
Jamie’s love of boots shows no signs of fading. As we’ve mentioned before, her favorite pair switches frequently. Because I’ve had a cold, I haven’t been in the chimp house much in the last couple of weeks, so I wasn’t sure which pair were at the top of her favorite list. When I saw the tall wooden heel of a new pair, I suspected those were her current loves. I was correct, as you can see by the photos below:
In depth story from KOMO
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]
Slurping the Day Away
Last week, volunteer Connie was here when it was about 100 degrees and we were working on ways to keep the chimps hydrated. It was a bigger concern than normal since the fire had caused a not-pleasant burned rubber smell to the well water, making us turn the chimps’ drinking spigots off. Staff decided to fill up plastic bins with bottled water and a bit of gatorade, put them in front of the fencing and give the chimps big tubes to drink out of. This resulted in a bunch of tubes and other various things that the chimps (mostly Jamie) had put in the water. So, enter Connie’s brilliance. She made some holes in the lid for the bin that the tubes just fit through.
Behold:
The awful burned smell in the water is not present any longer, but we’re waiting to get an all clear after sending a sample to the health department, so I used Connie’s invention today to provide a little afternoon refreshment.
Here’s Missy drinking:
The photo below is Annie, Jody and Foxie (left to right)
Foxie (pictured below) REALLY slurps while she’s drinking, as you may recall from this video from a few months ago
Pinterest Craft Challenge
I would call myself a Pinterest dabbler at this point. Aside from the endless recipes, I’m amazed by the craftiness of the pins that I’ve seen.
So, I had a thought today…
We have a BUNCH of misprinted t-shirts. We’ve had them since October 2009 and just haven’t come up with a way to use all of them.
Seems like a challenge perfect for crafters, whether they’re on Pinterest or not. It’ll be simple – I’ll mail you a shirt or shirts, you create something (bonus points for creating something the chimps will love), you send us back your creation, we’ll share it with others on Pinterest and vote on the best. We’ll come up with some prizes too. If appropriate, we’ll give your creation to the chimps to see what they make of it.
Go to the link of the pin on Pinterest that explains the challenge and share widely with your crafty friends. The more creations we get, the more fun it will be. I’ll set the deadline based on the interest we get in the project.
Here’s a photo of the shirts:
The printer reversed the image on the shirts, which resulted in a demon-like image of Jody (too scary to show in full view). We don’t want people walking around wearing the shirts and we don’t want to do anything with them that preserves that image, though cutting the image out and using the web address would be okay.
Ready to craft? Just email me ([email protected]) and tell me how many shirts you need. I’ll answer any questions you have and give you some more guidelines if you want to make something for the chimps.
scale or new place to sit?
J.B. just finished installing a scale in the greenhouse so that we can monitor the chimps’ weights. He cleverly disguised the scale as a place to sit. Most of the chimps are tucked away in their nests for the night and didn’t even bother getting up when the door to the greenhouse was opened for them, but Foxie and Jamie immediately came out.
Foxie, with two troll dolls, hopped right on it:
Jamie, of course, was mostly interested in seeing if she could take it apart:
Negra foraging on the hill
It was a beautiful, sunny and still morning in Cle Elum, so we set up breakfast on Young’s Hill as a forage. We added some lettuce to the forage – one of Negra’s favorite foods. She went right out! I think it’s the first time since September, when the hill was first opened, that I’ve seen seven chimpanzees out there at once.
Here’s a short video of Negra enjoying the forage: