I snapped these photos the other day of Jody nesting in the front rooms:

and they reminded me of an early photo of Jody, taken in the same spot, in one of her first nests at the sanctuary shortly after the chimpanzees arrived here.

I didn’t yet work at the sanctuary when the above photo was taken a little over five years ago, but I followed the blog closely as the chimps arrived from the lab and got settled into their new home. When I saw the first photos of them, I remember thinking how beautiful they were. Now looking back, they all look like ghosts to me. I couldn’t have imagined, seeing those first photos, what the chimps would become with a little good food, freedom, and love.