Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

vegan

Celebrating Nutmeg’s 5th Birthday

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This month, we celebrated the joyous anniversary of Nutmeg’s birth. Nutmeg completed his fifth trip around the sun on February 10.

Nutmeg and his bovine companions arrived at the sanctuary in the fall of 2018 and have been inhabiting the spacious pasture ever since. Even though he weighs well over one-thousand pounds, this tawny giant is still a mama’s boy. Despite his attachment to his mother, Betsy, we’ve enjoyed watching him grow more independent, hardy, and adventurous over the past 15 months. He still likes to hang with the herd, but he’s been exploring the sanctuary’s farmland and learning to love the outdoors with the support of his bovine companions. He’s also slimmed down quite a bit, and now sports a thick winter coat that has proven quite handy in recent months.

Normally, the cattle graze and browse the surrounding landscape during the warmer seasons and then receive supplementary hay and alfalfa during the winter. We pay close attention to their conditions so they can maintain a healthy weight. Last week, to celebrate Nutmeg’s birthday, we gave the cattle a few scoops of something special. The birthday mix was a rare treat that contained alfalfa, beets, oats and minerals. Nutmeg practically inhaled his portion before slurping the last few handfuls of grain directly off the tailgate. He’s quite the food connoisseur and he seemed to appreciate the special event.

In addition to keeping the sanctuary protected from fires by removing fuel from the landscape, these quirky creatures are a charming addition to the CSNW family. We couldn’t be happier to provide a peaceful home for Betsy, Honey, Meredith and Nutmeg. As I mentioned in the video, Nutmeg and the cows are looking for Bovine Buddy sponsorships that help us to maintain a safe and enriching environment for chimps and cattle, so please visit this page if you are interested in contributing to their care.

Also, please enjoy the included photos of this handsome dude.

Happy birthday, Nutmeg!

Nutmeg

sweet eats and sweet annie

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Hey! Tomorrow is the last day of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale (what a cool concept, right?)  You can help Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest by heading to the Tacoma bake sale located at King’s Books, 218 St Helens Ave, Tacoma, WA 98402. Find out more on the Facebook event page, which includes photos of some of the yummy baked goods you can buy. If you want to bake something as well as purchasing baked goods, feel free to drop in with your goodies at the book store tomorrow (Sunday) at noon. In addition to the baked goods, 35 copies of the vegan baked goods recipe book is up for sale. All proceeds support the sanctuary, so indulge!

Tacoma vegan bake sale flyer

 

Speaking of sweetness, if you saw our April e-news last week, you learned a little bit more about beautiful Annie. However, if you’re somewhat new to the sanctuary and the blog, you might not be aware that Annie has a habit of making bird noises (check out the video in the “Annie-isms” blog post from 2010 to hear her chirps). She has a particular technique for producing these sounds that involves holding both hands over her face. She was relaxing in the greenhouse this afternoon making her bird sounds and I snapped a few photos.

 

Annie involved her feet in the chirping today:

Annie hand over mouth bird noises

 

She may have just been having fun with her lips in this photo:

Annie hand over face bird noises

 

I think she’s generally quite pleased with herself after a good bird call (chimpanzees don’t smile the same way that humans do, but Annie often looks like she has a grin on her face from our human perspective):

Annie pleased

These boots were made for walkin’

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Jamie loves her cowboy boots and will often do everything in her power to cram her extra-wide feet into them, no matter what sized boot it is (I’ve seen her try to squeeze her foot into a size 5 boot!). Therefore, supporter Chris Frutiger is Jamie’s new best friend. Chris made a connection with an Australian-based company called Vegan Wares, which sells top quality vegan footwear and accessories, and convinced them to make a pair of custom-sized boots for Jamie. Chris and her husband, Dave delivered them to the sanctuary yesterday– we were all so excited!

(**Please keep in mind that Jamie always has the choice to wear the boots or not. We neither encourage or discourage- see this blog post regarding our take on chimpanzees wearing clothes**)

Since they are wider than most, the boots were made with no sole, which made them easy to roll up and fit through the caging:

It was slightly unusual that Jamie didn’t try them on right away– perhaps she just wanted to thoroughly inspect them first:

She carried them around with her for the rest of the day- nesting with them, inspecting them, smelling them, putting her hand in and out of them, and carrying them around in her pelvic pocket.

But from the moment I arrived this morning until about noon, Jamie was wearing them… and seemed pretty happy about it.

Thanks so much to Vegan Wares for creating the perfect Jamie boot, and to Chris, who spearheaded the whole project! We are all so grateful!! CSNW has the best supporters– is it possible to say that too much? I don’t think so.

Apron Activists benefit dinner

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The Apron Activists, made up of the wonderful folks at the vegan mini-mall in Portland, OR (SweetPea Baking Company, Food Fight, Herbivore, Scape Goat Tatoo) and Isa Chandra Moskowitz, chef and author of the best vegan cookbooks out there, are putting on a benefit dinner for the sanctuary Friday night in PDX.

The dinner is sold out, but don’t let that stop you from drooling over the menu. Check it out on the Post Punk Kitchen blog, and browse some of the great recipes while you’re there.

I’ll see you there if you managed to get your ticket before it was sold out!

Shop Food Fight and Herbivore TODAY

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Hey everyone, to continue with our holiday shopping initiative, all of the businesses in Portland’s vegan mini-mall are giving a percentage of their proceeds today, all day. If you’re not in Portland, there’s still a chance to help out by shopping at Food Fight and Herbivore online. Food Fight Vegan Grocery has an amazing selection of vegan grocery products and miscellany. My favorites include Tings, Sjaak’s Organic Truffles, Sheese all the way from Scotland (I like the cheddars), Ener-G Egg Replacer for baking. Oh – Sarah recently made meringue cookies and “accidentally” made whipped cream out of the Meringue Cookie Mix – both were out-of-the-world good. They even have crazy stuff like vegan haggis and cavier. I think you get the point – Food Fight has some really great stuff for all people who like food.

Herbivore Clothing has awesome clothing and accessories and also many, many books. I love the Herbivore bunny, which they have on three different shirts.  They have really great barrettes, belts, luggage tags, necklaces, bags and wallets – including coin purses made by our friend Laura Bee! And the books – wow! Because I’m so focused on food – I’ll recommend a couple of my favorite cookbooks: Buddha’s Table (Thai food!), Veganomicon (the best all-around cookbook there is), and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. There are lots more, a few that I will now purchase since part of the money will go to our chimpanzee friends.

Happy Shopping 🙂