Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Sponsor-a-day

Happy (Almost) Wedding Day, Kelsi & Adam!

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The whole staff here at CSNW are excited to sponsor this day of sanctuary in honor of caregiver Kelsi’s wedding tomorrow!

“Tomorrow is a very special day for a longtime caregiver here at CSNW- Kelsi! She is getting married to her best friend, Adam, and we are all so very happy for the two of them.

Kelsi- you are a pillar here at the sanctuary and I am so grateful to know you. You make everyone feel at home and the chimps adore you. I am so happy for you to marry your person and can’t wait to celebrate with you! – Grace

Congrats on the big day, Adam and Kelsi! Love you both so much and I wish you a lifetime of happiness together – Sofía

Best wishes and congratulations to you both! From your whole family of humans and chimps (and cattle) here at CSNW :)”

Cheers to you both!!

Kelsi, thriving:

Sweet Rayne:

 

It’s a Day for Celebrations!

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Today is a day to celebrate mothers for all they do! Caregiver Katelyn said it best when she told me “There are 101 ways to be a mother”. So however you relate to this holiday, if you find yourself in such a role – cheers to you.

Mother’s Day is also the perfect time to celebrate the mother’s of the sanctuary, which includes: Negra, Missy, Jody, Foxie, Annie, Honey, and Betsy. Negra, Missy, Jody, Foxie, and Annie were not allowed the opportunity to raise their children, but all their living children are happy and safe in sanctuaries. They make our lives better every day, and we are so lucky to know them.

It’s also a very special day today, as we celebrate Jody’s honorary birthday! She is turning 47 today and spent the day doing some of her favorite things- foraging on the hill, eating watermelon bowls, and spending time with her group. There is no better day to celebrate Jody than Mother’s Day, as she fulfills the motherly role in her group- always making sure everyone is taken care of and safe. We love you, Jo, happy birthday!

We would also like to thank our longtime supporter Paulette Wrisley for sponsoring the day in honor of Jody’s Birthday. We are so grateful for you!

Happy Birthday Willy B and All the March Birthdays

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What a day of celebration! It’s Mardi Gras, spring is literally on the horizon, there are parties to be had, vegan beignets to eat…

Firstly, it’s Willy B’s 32nd birthday! And it seems each of the chimpanzee’s or bovine’s birthdays wouldn’t quite be the same without their friend and self-appointed birthday fairy godmother extraordinaire, Paulette Wrisley, sponsoring a day of sanctuary in their honor! (Our second generous sponsorship of the day!).

Paulette, thank you so much for your incredible generosity and loving heart for all who call the sanctuary home. We truly appreciate you helping to make Willy B’s special day, extra so.

To celebrate Willy B’s birthday and Fat Tuesday, Dr Erin baked some sugar-free vegan beignets with ground up dry coconut “powdered sugar.”

These were a hit!

It was very difficult to get photos of the birthday boy enjoying his with his powdered lips, but I was able to get one of Annie who also enjoyed the beignets!

Also on the menu for the birthday boy were mangoes.

Willy B also enjoyed one of his favorite food puzzles: Frisbee Puzzles.

And as Willy B’s party is winding down, we also want to wish Happy March Birthdays to all of you celebrating this month! Not only do you share your birthday season with big guy, Willy B, but also even bigger guy, Cy, who is turning 32 on March 12th.

As always, even when it sometimes feels most difficult, we get to be reminded there is also resilience and hope, beauty and imagination. (Note to selves: The chimpanzees are really good at showing us how this can look. And much to our grateful hearts, so are you).

Here are some additional photos from today!

Honey B enjoying her lunch.

Mango lips
Enjoying her chow and eggplant

Terry also enjoying his lunch.

More Love for Rayne

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Rayne has charmed many supporters since arriving at the sanctuary last June, including Monica Best, who is another person who is sponsoring today’s day of sanctuary in honor of Rayne’s birthday! Thank you, Monica!

There is no doubt that Rayne is someone to be admired. We knew that Rayne was a strong individual, considered the female leader of her group (with Cy being the male leader) by those who cared for her at Wildlife Waystation. When she first arrived, she was a little slow to show her silly side, but once she settled into her new home and decided she could trust us, Rayne really warmed up to all of her caregivers. She greets us with friendly breathy pants and will play great games of chase throughout the building. She likes boxes, scarves, slinkys and smoothies, all of which she is enjoying in abundance today.

Today is the first birthday Rayne is celebrating at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. We think she makes 32 look pretty great.

Soup of the (Birth)Day

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Today, we celebrated Missy’s 46th birthday with a tomato-themed bash.

Paulette Wrisley made us smile by generously sponsoring this day of sanctuary in Missy’s honor. To make today even more special, our good friend Monica Best also sponsored this day of sanctuary for the same reason! Thank you for thinking of Missy, Paulette and Monica!

As many of you already know, tomatoes are Missy’s favorite food and she gets unashamedly excited about them. In fact, Missy’s love of tomatoes has single-handedly convinced the aforementioned Monica to give these odd fruits another chance (with some success).

Keeping this in mind, Enrichment Coordinator Chad created a chimp-friendly menu of fresh produce centered around whole beefsteak tomatoes. The meal even had an appetizer: a zesty gazpacho-like soup consisting of red bell peppers, celery, coconut milk, garlic, sweet onions, and tomatoes.

All three groups of chimpanzees enjoyed their own parties with the same menu, and the soup was an unexpected hit with some individuals while others ran around gathering sweet peppers and tomatoes. Of course, Missy seemed to have the best day of all. She zoomed around the Greenhouse and Young’s Hill, scarfing down dozens of treats and devouring several large beefsteak tomatoes on her own.

Chad took the following photos and I asked him if I could include them in today’s post! Even if Chad had said “no,” I would have stolen the images from him and taken credit anyway.

Negra
Missy
Burrito
Foxie
Burrito (doing his best impersonation of Missy)

We’re so lucky to have such amazing supporters who make days like today possible, and we can’t possibly express our full appreciation for Paulette, Monica, and everyone else. Thanks you all for loving Missy and her companions as much as we do!

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P.S. I wanted to title this blog post Soups!… I Did It Again but I did some research and that pun is already in use. Apparently, there’s a Wisconsin company using that name for their brand. They actually make soups. I’ve been bested at my own game. Soups.

It’s Love a Chimpanzee Day 2021!

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Supporter Monica Best named April 23rd Love a Chimpanzee Day and has sponsored this day each year since 2010 for her chimpanzee friends at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.

We’re using this occasion as the official kick-off to GiveBig. Monica and I have teamed up by creating a joint fundraising page with a $5,000 matching donation!

Love a Chimpanzee Day has become an official holiday around here. So much so, that we even include the day in the annual calendar.

Monica created Love a Chimpanzee Day in honor of her cat Ozzie on her birthday during a difficult and uncertain time when she was battling cancer. She credits the chimpanzees with helping her through that time and subsequent relapses.

Like many of us, even as a kid, Monica loved and was drawn towards nonhuman animals, especially wolves. She didn’t fall for chimpanzees until she happened upon a television show that featured Carole Noon, the founder of Save the Chimps. She immediately searched for other sanctuaries on the internet and found Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.

We are SO GRATEFUL to Monica. She has been an incredible champion of chimpanzees and is always thinking of ways to make their lives happier. She’s also always thinking of ways to broaden the support of the sanctuary and encourage others to donate to help the chimpanzees she loves and chimpanzees everywhere.

We would not be in the position of being able to welcome the Lucky Six chimpanzees coming to the sanctuary later this year without her support.

Today we are celebrating with the chimps and inviting all of their fans to join a virtual tour, see the expansion in progress, and learn about the Chimps in Need campaign and all of the chimpanzees who remain at Wildlife Waystation waiting to go to their new sanctuary homes.

You can still register for this 4:00 p.m. PT virtual event here.

Even if you are unable to attend, you can help us celebrate today and the future with more chimpanzees to love by donating on Monica and Diana’s GiveBig fundraising page or the sanctuary’s main GiveBig page.

Let’s all lean on our love of chimpanzees today and celebrate all the joy they have brought to our lives.

Happy Love a Chimpanzee Day, everyone!!

Burrito loves Duran Duran
Monica is a fan of Duran Duran and we took this photo of Burrito during the 2011 Love a Chimpanzee Day!