Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Party

Jamieween 2022

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This year’s iteration of Jamieween was a joyful success!

With the help of our amazing supporters, we caregivers prepared a feast and party to celebrate The Boss’s honorary birthday. The staff collected some video clips and photographs of the event to share with you all. Please be aware that we also recorded the highlights of the other group’s party but haven’t had time to sort through all the files yet. We hope to share additional content from today’s event very soon!

Some of the plentiful treats and toys we served and delivered to the chimps today:

Burrito:

Jamie:

Jody (with the prized pumpkin):

Jamie turned 45 years old this year, but the decades haven’t slowed her down one bit. Yesterday, for the first time in her life, she courageously shimmied her way up into the canopy of a real, living tree. This chimpanzee’s confidence, intelligence and curiosity truly know no bounds, and we’re honored to care for her in her sanctuary home.

Here are some of my favorite photos of Jamie from the past year:

Foxie Doesn’t Care

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As caregiver Sofia and I were cleaning the Playroom I heard a knock on the share window by the Green House. When I looked over, it was Foxie with two dolls! I ran over to say hi through the window before going upstairs to squeegee, but then she knocked on the window one more time and erupted into a game of chase. I ran out telling Sofia I would be right back! Foxie did not care that we were cleaning, it was time to play. We chased for several minutes before she decided it was time to have her dolls back. However, before I could go back to help clean Jamie and Missy needed tomatoes from the garden, obviously!

On the other side of the building, Willy B has recovered very well! We have been starting the process of reintroducing Willy B back into his group. Because they are a relatively new group we need to slowly add Willy B back to ensure overall success and well-being. We have been doing play dates, but today we took the step of adding him into a small group overnight to make sure it goes okay. If all goes well he will be back with his group tomorrow!

Everyone has been so excited to see Willy B, his day has been full of grooming and playing chase :)!

It’s October, which means Jamieween is right around the corner! Make sure to keep checking on our Amazon Wish List for Jamie’s party!

The Other Tomato Party

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Missy had such an amazing birthday party yesterday! Because we had so much to cover for her party we weren’t able to share what happen over on Dora’s side of the building! They also had a lunch forage to celebrate Missy. Please enjoy the video and photos from yesterday!

Willy B with an arm full and a mouth full of chow:

Rayne in all her pepper glory:

A very distinguished Mave:

Mave swooping in to grab tomatoes:

Gordo with a mouth full of what we think is chow:

Sweet Dora:

Honey B’s 33rd Birthday Movie

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How lucky are we that we have so many celebrations in June!

Also, how lucky are we to have such amazing supporters?! Your comments about caregivers for Animal Sanctuary Caregiver Day will be read over and over again. We are all so grateful to have you all behind us all, providing so much encouragement and sharing your kind words.

Speaking of supporters, Paulette sponsored Honey B’s birthday today. It seemed like an extra special celebration in my view because she had more friends to share in her fun. I hope you enjoy the video, and I hope you enjoy this photo of Honey B looking into your eyes the way she looks into the eyes of her caregivers each day ;).

 

Mave’s 33rd Birthday

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Today, Mave celebrated her 33rd birthday! We’re so grateful to both Paulette Wrisley and Kenneth Reiter for sponsoring this day her her honor (in addition to Melissa Reed, whose sponsor post came earlier in the day).

One of the challenges of keeping the peace in a new group is to make things exciting for them, but not too exciting. Forages have a way of bringing out the competitive spirit in some chimps, if you know what I mean (see: B., William). So the key today was to ensure that Mave got some of her favorite foods without causing any unnecessary drama. And it was a success! We kept the forage fairly low-key and then made sure that everyone got at least one coconut and one mango. Honey B brought home the award for best coconut cracker, while Willy B had to watch some of the other chimps smash theirs open before figuring it out.

While Mave loved the food, her real present was the one thing money can’t buy, which she already received just recently – Dora! It seems that Mave has always wanted a Dora of her own, and now she has one. For her own birthday, Dora may want to ask for some personal space 🙂

Happy Birthday to an amazing chimpanzee.

Rayne’s Coconut Party

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Rayne turned 32 today! We’re so grateful to Tobin, Monica, and Paulette for sponsoring this day in her honor. At breakfast we served mangoes, which are a rare treat around here since we can’t store or prepare them in the kitchen due to Annie’s allergy. They were a huge hit. Later, the playrooms and greenhouses were filled with Rayne’s favorite enrichment and a forage of fruit smoothie, bok choy, grape tomatoes, and young coconuts with bamboo straws.

This group is notoriously difficult to photograph, as they prefer to stick to the upper levels of their playroom and greenhouse enclosures, but we managed to catch a tiny bit of the action. Here’s the birthday girl:

Cy:

Gordo:

Terry (that coconut really sticks in your teeth!):

 

Dora, who after having her first sip of coconut, had to tell me and the group next door all about it:

As the party wound down, Rayne gathered some smoothie and coconut, went up to the highest nest platform in the playroom (her favorite spot), and made a nice nest.

Happy Birthday, Rayne!