The CSNW Mixed Tape

One of the most flattering things you can do for someone is to compile a list of songs just for them. Regardless of the medium, playlists are powerful way to express friendship, interest, attraction, love, respect, gratitude… or even to just say “this music is good and you’re cool.” It doesn’t seem to matter whether…

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“If you build it, chimps will come.”

Sometimes, the development of the sanctuary feels oddly like the plot of Field of Dreams. Instead of building a baseball diamond in the middle of an Iowa cornfield to attract the ghosts of early ballplayers, we’re constructing a facility in the foothills of the Cascades to rescue chimpanzees. It’s practically the same thing. “If you…

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A PAN-tastic Group of Humans

It’s now been well over a year since we began the “new normal” style of sanctuary operations. The objective of these changes has been to mitigate the risk of transmitting COVID-19 to the chimpanzees. Of course, the nuclear staff cannot stop interacting with the chimps entirely, so we’ve found other ways to meet their daily…

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Another Mother’s Day for Jody

It’s Mother’s Day. At the sanctuary, our celebration of this special day always includes a birthday party for Jody. Her actual date of birth is missing from her original records, but the date aligns with both Jody’s history as a biological mother and her honorary status as the group’s “den mother.” Like Jody, Annie, Foxie,…

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The Time Lapse Experiment

I recently started playing around with a function on my new camera: time lapse photography. To create a time lapse piece, I set the camera on a tripod and program it to automatically take an exposure every five seconds for an extended time (up to an hour in most cases). The camera’s processor then compiles…

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Cauli-Power

Today, the chimps ate a LOT of vegetables. Last Thursday, we received a generous donation of fresh veggies from Logan’s Casual Restaurant in nearby Roslyn. We also received our regular produce delivery on that same day, doubling our usual weekly supply and packing our refrigerators! Ever since, we’ve been practically shoveling greens out into the…

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50 Shades of Hay

A friend of me recently told me that they find observing cattle to be emotionally grounding. For sure, a serenely grazing cow radiates peace. It’s difficult to tell when cattle are truly happy since they express their emotions in a way that seems alien to most humans. Still, there is a notable contrast between a…

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Health Care for the Bovines

With the exception of the occasional snow flurries, we’re welcoming the arrival of spring here at the sanctuary. For the small herd of rescued Jersey cattle that resides here, the onset of spring corresponds with green pastures for grazing and warm sunshine for sunbathing. They’re already nibbling at the carpet of new growth that has…

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Nor’Easter

In my native Rhode Island and the surrounding New England states, the locals have a unique name for winter storms that blow down from the north Atlantic: nor’easters. These tempests bring sideways rain, chilling temperatures, and powerful gusts of wind. The eastern slopes of the Cascades don’t have the same maritime climate as the northeast…

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An Honest April Fool’s Day

It was so, so hard to retrain myself today. After all, it’s the first day of the fourth month of this year, making it → A P R I L  F O O L ‘ S  D A Y ←, the best day of the year for light-hearted shenanigans. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to come…

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Say It Ain’t Snow

Today’s weather was wild. The morning began just as yesterday ended: with golden sunshine and unseasonably high temperatures. The cattle, despite their provisioned hay, were basking in the sun and nibbling on the fresh grass that is just starting to take over the pasture. The only indicator of trouble was a distant wall of clouds…

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Meredith

Those of you who follow CSNW on Instagram may have noticed that we regularly feature images of the four rescued Jersey cattle who graze the pastures around the sanctuary. Since these herbivorous creatures are so different from their chimpanzee neighbors, focusing on the cattle can be a welcome change of pace for the sanctuary staff…

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