Fighting

jody drooped lip face young's hill

The chimps had a big fight on Tuesday night during dinner. I haven’t witnessed a fight of that intensity that lasted that long in years. The Cle Elum Seven do have minor conflicts all of the time. If you’re not familiar with chimps, you might think these squabbles are all-out brawls, but after you’ve seen…

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Fan Mail

Missy's bamboo catapult

Today on the sanctuary’s Facebook page, I asked fans which chimp of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees they were most drawn towards. A lot of people couldn’t chose among the seven, not surprisingly. Some people were able to name names, however, and comments about what draws people to the chimps keep coming in, including this…

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Food and Friends

missy playface log stump

Today was overcast but surprisingly warm. The chimps spent most of the morning on the hill. Missy was so happy!   I was watching Foxie and noticed that she did not have a troll doll with her. I thought, “that’s weird.” Then, I scanned the landscape and noticed that Jamie had a troll doll in…

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Happy Birthday to Pam Lehnert from Jill!

missy carrying food

Jill Estep has sponsored today in honor of her friend Pam Lehnert’s birthday. What a nice gift! Pam, as many of you know, has been involved with Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest for a long time. She and her husband Marc attended the open house we had before the chimpanzees arrived in 2008. She’s contributed countless hours,…

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Vote for Crafty Projects

dog collar sleeves

Back in July, I posted about a “Pinterest Challenge” asking crafty people to take some misprinted sanctuary shirts and make something new out of them. Several people responded. Then the fire hit.  Following up with crafters, updating the challenge, and spending any time on Pinterest ended up being sacrificed for other work. We did, however,…

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Foxie and Choices

Foxie and her many dolls

We’ve written a lot about how one of the most important characteristics of a true sanctuary is giving chimpanzees the opportunity to make their own choices (You’ll find a search box on the right hand side of the blog – just scroll down a bit. Type in “choices” and several blog posts will appear). J.B.’s…

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Negra’s Condo?

jb seana construct negra's condo

We have been calling the structure that J.B. is building on Young’s Hill “Negra’s Cabin,” but volunteer Denice decided the more appropriate name is “Negra’s Condo.” Take a look at the photos and tell us what you think.   J.B. has been working on the cabin/condo for a few days straight now. Today, volunteer Seana…

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Look who’s settling in on the hill

Negra with lettuce on log bridge

As we’ve mentioned in other posts, Negra has been the most hesitant to fully embrace Young’s Hill, but today she was the first one out of the raceway and sat for quite a long time on the log bridge enjoying the breakfast lettuce forage.

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Laboratory Life

Negra before in buckshire cage

At Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, we made a conscious decision to focus on sharing the personalities of the chimpanzees with everyone we could – to show who they are and the steps they are taking to recover from their past lives as biomedical research subjects. There are more happy, goofy, playful, funny moments in a day…

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Annie and Missy Best Friends

annie and Missy best friends

Supporter Annie Norris has a best friend named Missy and was excited to learn that Annie and Missy of the Cle Elum Seven are also best friends. She said it was okay for us to share this little page she made of the BFFs. I took it a step further and dug up some other…

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Objects of Desire

Jamie hugging boot 1

First of all, I would like to direct your attention to the right side of this page. If you scroll down, past the announcements and look just past the e-newsletter sign-up, you will see a newly added feature to our blog! You can now plug your email address into that box over the “subscribe” button,…

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