Terry

Keep the Love Going: Fall in Love with Terry!

February 15, 2023 by Grace 11 Comments

Valentine’s Day might be over (you can check out that fabulous party here), but we’re here to keep the love going!

On our webpage for each chimpanzee, we have a personalized Fall in Love video. These are precious snip-bits into who they are- favorite hobbies, what foods they like, etc. While they are educational, they also are really good at making you fall in love over and over… and over again. So, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we are excited to finally release the Fall in Love videos of Cy’s original group of six- the “Lucky Six”! Starting today and over the next five days, the blog will feature these videos of Terry, Cy, Gordo, Lucky, Rayne, and Dora. And, boy, are they lovable!

Sometimes I forget how much has changed for this original group of six over the last few years. After Wildlife Waystation closed in 2019, the Chimpanzees In Need campaign worked to re-home the chimpanzees that lived at Waystation (click here to learn more and donate to their care). The “Lucky Six” were the second group of Waystation chimps that found their permanent home here at CSNW in June of 2021, with Willy B, Honey B, and Mave arriving in the fall of 2019. The two groups have since been integrated and now live in a group of nine.

So, over the last few years, these six chimps have found themselves in a new home, in a new state, with new humans, and also developed relationships with three other chimps that have made it possible for them to live in a larger group of nine. As someone who gets thrown off for the day if my coffee machine malfunctions in the morning, I can’t express how impressed & proud I am of them. And, generally, just how much I adore these nine chimps. And also their neighbors, of course. 🙂

All this to say that, now, a year and a half later, we have watched the original “Lucky Six” come out of their shells and really let their personalities shine. Creating these videos has been a lot of fun and I hope you fall in love with them as much as we have (if you haven’t already)!

First up on the docket is Terry (AKA Sir Terrance, Teeny Tiny Terry, and/or T-Dawg). Born on June 13, 1990 at a biomedical research laboratory, we are so grateful that he now calls CSNW home. Check out the video for more on this lovable goof.

We’ll be uploading this video to Terry’s Bio Page once all the videos have been featured, but if you’re interested in sponsoring Terry you can become his Chimpanzee Pal today!

Teeny Tiny Terry

February 7, 2023 by Chad de Bree

Teeny Tiny Terry sits on a teeny tiny block,

Blowing raspberries at caregivers all around the clock.

Teeny Tiny Terry is goofy with his teeny tiny friends,

Hoping that his play sessions will never come to an end.

Teeny Tiny Terry and his teeny tiny tongue,

Greets every caregivers’ hand with nothing but love.

Teeny Tiny Terry loves eating his teeny tiny food,

Making sure everything in his mouth is evenly chewed.

Teeny Tiny Terry lets out a teeny tiny hoot,

Making everyone else follow in suit.

Teeny Tiny Terry and his teeny tiny toes,

Gets caregivers’ attention for drinks from the hose.

Teeny Tiny Terry has captured all of our teeny tiny hearts,

No one could ever imagine a life being too far apart.

Photo Captions:

1: Terry seems to have found the wooden block toys are the best chairs!

2: Terry and Mave play during lunch today.

3: Terry sticks his tongue out to greet caregivers in the morning.

4: Terry eats his chow biscuits during lunch.

5: Terry begins hooting as the others are doing as well.

6: Terry loves receiving drinks from hoses!

7: Terry and Cy!

Bonus photos of Honey B at lunch:

Two Most Likely Friends

January 25, 2023 by Kelsi

To start, if you haven’t read Anthony’s final blog from Monday, I would stop here and go read his blog first. He very beautifully wrote about his experiences in sanctuary and the new journey he is about to start, but he also described the life of a caregiver. To be a caregiver is a true honor, but it also comes with many challenges. There are moments like the one I am going to write about today that make everything worth the hard parts, but then you have days of watching your friends fight and there is nothing you can do to help (which might just be the hardest part of the job). I digress though, I encourage you to read his blog!

For me personally, watching chimps who struggle socially develop strong relationships with other chimps is one of the most extraordinary parts of the job. Facilitating chimp introductions may have been one of the most stressful points in my career, but it was also one of the most rewarding as well. Now that they are a fully integrated group, I catch amazing moments every day between Honey B and Dora in particular, both with other individuals in their group and with each other. I feel so immensely proud of them. With their own quirks, they each left us unsure of how they would integrate in the very beginning of the introduction stage. This is not a new story I am telling; many of you who follow the blog know that we had a few individuals that we referred to as “wild cards.” What I didn’t expect was for Dora to become Miss Popular or for Honey B to sometimes be the cool, calm and collected one in the group. One might even go as far as saying that she may occasionally be a peace-keeper, and has developed strong relationships with multiple people in her group! This is just proof that chimps really do belong in larger groups with more social stimulation. I am not exactly sure what I am getting at today, but I am just really, really happy for them!

It is not so surprising that Honey B let the sweet, tiny, but also mighty Dora into her social circle. They did live with each other at Wildlife Waystation at some point, so they were not wholly unfamiliar. As Terry knows, however, it doesn’t always matter if you have history; you still have to put the work in for a friendship! (Fortunately, Honey B and Terry are good friends now.) While Terry had to work hard for Honey B’s affection, Dora did not. What a wild experience it must be to think that you won’t ever see or live with someone again and then end up back together. I hope you enjoy this video of Honey B and Dora, the two most likely friends :).

Bonus photo of Foxie:

Guess who’s back? Back again

January 15, 2023 by Jenna Skinner

Terry is officially back with his group!

Last week, Terry had to undergo surgery for a fractured tooth. While surgery went very well, he remained isolated away from his group so he could have time to properly heal. Since then, Terry has spent lots of time resting, enjoying soft foods, grooming with caregivers, watching movies, and working on enrichment puzzles. Despite doing our best to keep Terry busy, he has been itching to get back with his group. He’s a very social guy, after all!

Yesterday, Terry was able to have a quick play date with Honey B! While he needed an extra day from his entire group to heal, laughter and chase with Honey B may have been the perfect medicine! Here are some photos I took of Honey B and Terry playing chase yesterday. They wouldn’t sit still for one moment, so apologies for the blurs.

Terry and Honey B play date:

Today, Dr. Erin gave Terry the all-clear to go back with the rest of his group! Woohoo!

Here are some photos of Terry and his group when they were reunited. They were so excited to have him back. Lots of hugs occurred!

Rayne (L), Cy (back), and Terry (front):

Terry and Lucky:

On the other side of the building, Jamie’s group has been out enjoying Young’s Hill. As soon as the door to the hill was opened, Burrito, Jamie, Jody, Missy, and Annie ran out on the hill. Foxie chose to watch them from the Greenhouse and Negra decided to stay in the warm Playroom.

Missy:

I would also like to announce an exciting event! Next Sunday, January 22nd, 2023 at 1pm PT, we will be hosting a discussion on Positive Reinforcement Training (PRT). Anthony (Health and Behavior Coordinator) and I (Behavior Technician) will be discussing how we use PRT to help health and wellness at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. This discussion will include a live virtual visit in the chimp house. Please join us!

Link to reserve your spot here!

Terry: The Whole Tooth and Nothing but the Tooth

January 11, 2023 by Kelsi

Another busy day in the Chimp House! Unfortunately, Terry had to take a trip to the clinic today for a fractured tooth.

Fortunately, we were able to have a skilled group of individuals come to the sanctuary to help with Terry’s procedure. In addition to our vet Dr. Erin and our vet assistant Sofía, we were grateful to have the assistance of Dr. Dan Whitemarsh of Cle Elum Dental Clinic and Mekenzie, CRNA for this procedure! Also a special thank you to Sofía’s aunt Maria A. Loza, DMD, MS for consulting with us about Terry’s tooth!

Through x-rays we were able to determine his canine was completely fractured below the gum line. Dr. Erin opted to extract the broken fragment and clean up the gum to where it could be sutured back together. Out of all the outcomes, this was a good one that will lead to the fastest recovery for him. If all goes well, he can go back to his group sooner! It was exciting to determine, after consulting with other veterinarians and dentists that have worked on chimps, that we could resolve the issue without extracting the entire tooth root. We will keep a close eye on his healing process and do more work if needed, but we are currently happy with the results. Since Terry was already under anesthesia, we also collected all the medical information we could. He got a full dental x-ray, body x-ray, ultrasound, and blood work profile, among other things.

Recently, we received a grant from the Ruth Foundation, a legacy of the Gary E. Millard Family Foundation, for some new medical equipment. With that money we were able to purchase a dental cleaning machine and a dental x-ray, which up until now we had been borrowing. We can’t express how amazing it was to do a full dental cleaning with our new dental machine and x-ray system. We are also awaiting delivery of a new patient monitor, funded by the same grant, which uses new technology for capturing blood oxygen saturation – something that can be difficult to capture in chimps.

Using our new Dental x-ray:

Terry getting his teeth polished by Sofía with our new dental cleaning equipment:

Dr. Whitemarsh and Sofía cleaning Terry’s teeth:

Just finishing up the teeth cleaning with Dr. Erin (left), Sofía (middle), Mekenzie (right):

Dr. Whitemarsh needed to get back to his own clinic, but with the power of technology Dr. Erin was able to consult with him over FaceTime video chat:

Dr. Erin suturing Terry up:

Dr. Erin using the ultrasound:

Caregiver Grace observing and helping out in the clinic:

Dr. Erin (left) doing an eye exam on Terry and Mekenzie (right) assisting:

Sofía doing a blood glucose test:

After stitching him up and doing as many health assessments we could, Terry was ready to go back into the recovery room. He had quite the crowd waiting for him; Terry is a very popular guy! 🙂

Mave, Honey B, and Cy watching Terry come back into his room:

Rayne monitoring Dr. Erin:

Before Terry woke up Dr. Erin was able to do some laser therapy on Terry’s mouth. Laser therapy is very cool, it can help with pain, inflammation, and healing!

Terry did great during the procedure and is recovering very well, just a little sleepy.

Sweet Terry snoozing after a long morning:

On the Eighth Day of Christmas…

December 21, 2022 by Kelsi

On the eighth day of Christmas, the chimps received cozy blankets. I think you all can guess who put these blankets to good use!

Special thank you to:

CeeCee M. for bidding on cozy fleece blankets for the chimps!

And thank you to everyone who has donated blankets to us over the holiday!

It’s Negra, of course:

Negra in her morning nest. She greeted me and then went back to sleep :).

Secret Santa

December 13, 2022 by Chad de Bree

Boy howdy! What a busy day! Besides our daily Chimp House duties, we had our bi-weekly staff meeting, are deep in preparing for the resident’s Christmas party, sorting through gifts that arrived from the recent Comfort & Joy auction, and trying to keep up with Burrito!

We want to thank those who have purchased items off our Amazon Wish List! We just wanted to let you know if you have purchased something off the wishlist, or sent something directly to us, please be assured that we have or will receive it. It may just take a little bit for us to process things in order to send out the confirmation it has arrived.

If you would like to still purchase items off our wish list for their Christmas party, there’s still time! But time is starting to run out for it to be delivered on time. If you can, please peruse through our Amazon Wish List. We hope to make this Christmas a special one for them!

Now for some photos from today!

Terry taking his chow biscuits to go!