Missy’s story
June 12, 2013 by Debbie -
Missy cracks us up every day.
She is super active, but at times can be calm, gentle and is very intense and serious about grooming sessions. She also likes to use tools to groom herself. She doesn’t sit still for long though—every day she runs so fast around the playroom chasing Annie or on the hill just for the fun of it. Like Burrito and Foxie, she’s pretty goofy, has a great sense of humor, and will even sometimes crack herself up. She’s very energetic and has the ability to get just about anyone to play with her.
On Young’s Hill she seems to prefer to be an acrobat, and often times will walk along the firehoses like a tight rope rather than the structures themselves. To her that probably is just more fun. It’s awesome so see her enjoying herself so much.
Missy’s birthday is unknown but it’s estimated she was born in 1975, and Buckshire purchased her from a private breeder. Missy has two tattoos: “CH504” on her chest, which was from LEMSIP; and “#133” which is from another lab, possibly White Sands. We only have a few records from Buckshire and LEMSIP, and nothing prior to 1987, though it is likely she was either at LEMSIP or another lab previously. While at LEMSIP she was used in hepatitis vaccine trials and used as a breeder. In 1987 she gave birth to her first infant on record:
April 25, 1987: Male infant live born Day 229 of gestation. Showed a great deal of affection towards the infant but did not know now to carry him to breast or suckle him. Her behavior did not improve over the following week, during which time nutritional maintenance was given, and the baby was removed permanently to the nursery for rearing.
December 12, 1987: Small amount of placental tissue aborted, accompanied by uterine bleeding (very early gestation.)
June 11, 1989: Female infant born Day 229 of gestation. Did not pick up infant at all, which was therefore removed to the nursery for rearing.
July 14, 1991: Stillborn female infant Day 225 of gestation.
In Late 1992 she moved back to Buckshire, where she lived, warehoused, until being rescued by Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in 2008. Though her records do not indicate she was being used in any active biomedical research protocols during these years at Buckshire, just like the other chimpanzees there, Missy was routinely knocked down for blood draws, physicals, and tuberculosis tests.
Missy arriving at CSNW in 2008:
Missy and her best friend Annie playing in the early sanctuary days:
Today Missy is brave, easy-going, playful, and full of energy. It’s very hard to think of her stuck in small cages no bigger than a coat closet when she runs, full speed, across the open-air enclosure of Young’s Hill and scrambles up tall posts without a second thought.
Annie and Missy now get to play with no cage above their head:
And at the end of the day, she can relax in peace:
Give Five for Missy. $5 pays for one meal, and Missy loves fresh produce that provides her the calories she needs to keep her speed up!
4 Comments
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Missy, Miss. What a gal, so much fun is a small package. I love when she puts a sock on a foot and then darts off to find someone to play with. When she runs on the hill you can hear her laughing, brings smile to me just thinking about it.
I was wondering, there is a chimp at Save the Chimps, Indie who was born at LEMSIP 8/13/1985, the mother is listed on their website as Missie, I know the spelling is different from your Missy but could she be her daughter since it appears from this post that Missy might have been at LEMSIP then and she would have been old enough to give birth?
Stephanie – according to what we have from LEMSIP she didn’t give birth until 1987. She would have been old enough to have a baby in 1985, and sometimes names are spelled differently in the records (Foxie is sometimes Foxy and other times Foxey) so it is possible but we just don’t know for sure. In her 5th picture Indie does look a little bit like Missy.
We also don’t have any records of Jamie’s history at LEMSIP so we can’t say for sure that she had offspring, but we certainly can’t rule it out either.
It’s sad that there is so much that is still unknown, but what we do know is that Missy sure loves to run and I’m glad she gets to do it everyday now!
I just love that Missy! She’s so adorable and her energy is contagious. I become so mesmerized when I watch her. I’m really looking forward to getting to know her.