Foxie continues to entertain us on a daily basis with her playfulness. Yesterday morning Burrito was her playmate. Foxie is holding a Madame Alexander doll that Cindy brought (like the British Boy) and Burrito has a scrub brush and a plastic wrench. He gets clocked in the face with the scrub brush at one point, but doesn’t seem to mind.
Archive for January, 2009
Foxie and Burrito play
Sunday, January 18th, 2009Foot gloves – more sanctuary fashion
Friday, January 16th, 2009Last week, the same day that J.B. hung the mirror, Jody was wearing a striped glove on her foot. She wore it ALL day. Occasionally she would take it off and put it back on. She made a point of putting her toes into the fingers of the glove (at least some of her toes in some of the fingers), as you can see from the close up below. She wore the foot glove while inspecting the mirror as you can see in the second photo. That’s Jamie next to Jody half standing in the box. You just never know what the chimps will find appealing. It’s a good thing they receive so many great gifts – there’s always something for everyone in their daily enrichment! Thank you all so much for sending your care packages that are always full of fun gifts and warm sentiments. You make a difference in the lives of the Cle Elum Seven everyday.
Missy
Thursday, January 15th, 2009
A game of catch
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009Another very nice feature of the facility here is that the chimps can reach their arms out between the pipes that make the “roof” of the outdoor area. Since it’s high up in the air, the chimps can’t reach out and grab us (yay) but they can reach out to throw stuff at us (also yay?!). Foxie has a game where she throws her troll baby to us through the roof, and we catch the baby and send him/her back. Here are some closeups!
Burrito on the lookout
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009Our building is designed so that the chimps can see what’s going on. They can see into the kitchen, so they can watch us making their meals and see who’s coming and going. They can see the UPS truck and other folks coming up the driveway too. I snapped this picture of Mr. B when a volunteer was arriving today. He leaned out over the catwalk so he could catch a glimpse of who was here!
New pseudo-chimpanzees
Monday, January 12th, 2009Check out these funny-looking chimpanzees I found in the kitchen today!
Website troubles
Monday, January 12th, 2009So sorry for our site being down so often lately. We are working with Dreamhost to fix the problem and hope you’ll be patient with these outages!
Mirror, mirror on the wall…
Sunday, January 11th, 2009J.B. hung the mirror today in the playroom that the blog/forum participants purchased for the Cle Elum Seven. The chimpanzees love it! Jamie was pretty intent on figuring out how to remove it from the wall, so J.B. put a frame around it at the end of the day. Below is a video and photos of their first inspections and reflections.
Outside at last
Sunday, January 11th, 2009With the crazy weather, the chimps had not been able to go outside for a few days. It’s been sunny three days running now (with more to come!), and we’ve been able to give them a bit of outside time. They go out for brief periods even when it’s cold (but sunny) and windy – you can hear the wind in the video below. They run around, swing, play chase, and grab handfuls of snow to bring back inside.
Burrito and Negra
Friday, January 9th, 2009Burrito and Negra have an interesting relationship. She seems genuinely afraid of him at times and will hide in the front rooms when he is displaying. And if there is excitement in the group, she will give him a huge submissive greeting (she will grunt loudly and present her rear end to him) as if to say “don’t take it out on me, please!”
But they also spend a lot of time grooming together, and once and a while Burrito can get Negra to laugh. Of course, he has to play Negra-style (calmly and slowly, laying down if possible), which is a stretch for Burrito. Take a look (FYI – the hissing sound you hear is me moving the pneumatic doors to let the chimps in for lunch):
