This obviously isn't a true Jamie selfie, as she isn't holding my phone. I turned on the front facing camera for her to look at herself and snapped a photo while she was checking herself out. I asked "Jamie is that you?" and she nodded yes. I said "Dang girl, you are beautiful!" and she nodded again. Of course I am. I'm Jamie Chimpanzee!
Monday at the chimp house, Jamie was in a pretty good mood. Which is a exhale of relief to most, because when Jamie's in a bad mood it's kind of hard to do basic things like serve a meal or clean the enclosures. Like when we are feeling stubborn or unwilling to do things, it's on her time and if she doesn't want to leave an area so the humans can enter, then that's just how it is. No forcing anyone, we just wait. Jamie was in a good mood, the morning was cold but when the sun came out it warmed everything up quite nicely. Jamie and I took 3 walks around the hill, taking our time as she foraged for left over breakfast she might have missed. It was a very nice day.
I step into the chimp area to grab a laundry basket and Foxy comes running full speed towards me, which she literally never does, and climbs to the top of the caging to throw her troll down to me through a opening. I laugh and say "Fox are you running to me?!?!" Foxie and I are friends, yes, but she's not really "overjoyed" to play a game of troll toss with me. Not yet anyway. So, as she hurdled towards me, I couldn't help but be so excited, because these are rare interactions! She threw me her doll, we danced and spun around a few times and then Missy came to the caging and asked for some grooming. I gave Foxie back her doll and groomed Missy briefly before she reached her hand out to the window on the opposite wall. Gesturing to her one true love, Tomatoes.
Missy is not so secretly infatuated with tomatoes,specifically the tomatoes that grow in the garden right outside of the chimp house; and similar to my love for pickles... WE JUST HAVE TO HAVE THEM. Missy didn't want any grooming at all, she wanted me to know that there were ripe tomatoes out there and I needed to go pick them right away. So I grabbed a bowl and obliged my tomato loving friend and stumbled upon a huge heap of tomatoes. I was approved to give everyone a couple, and Missy could not possibly be more excited. When Missy is aware that tomatoes are on the menu or soon to be in her belly, she food grunts and head nods so fervently that I'm always shocked her head doesn't just pop right off her body. Normally, when serving food, the chimps will stay where they are and I will rotate between them with food. Missy loves tomatoes so much that she will literally follow me from chimp to chimp, squeezing in between people, just to make sure she can get as many as physically possible. Probably why chimp ID is so important; if you didn't know all the individuals, you could wind up giving Missy 7x the regular amount of tomatoes! (Which, obviously, she would love.)
Below is a picture Lars took of me serving dinner to the chimps. Left-Right: Burrito, Foxie.
Serving Foxie some celery.
On Monday Staff Caregiver aka my mom aka Elizabeth and I almost died. And by that I mean, we didn't even come close, but there was a moment of sheer terror. As I already said, Jamie was in a walking mood. She had already taken me on 3 walks around the hill and just before I was getting ready to leave she wanted to go on another one with Elizabeth, and I was needed to attend that one as well. Just like all the other walks that day, it was painfully slow. Jamie would disappear into the bushes to forage for more food, and when we would lose sight of her we would stop our walk. Continuing on without her is not appreciated by the boss, as she likes to lead. (Example: the 1 or 2 times I've "lost" Jamie on the hill was when she disappeared into the bushes and I just stopped walking and waited where I was for her. She would show up as a small black dot on the other side of the hill, realize I was still back on the other side, run towards me while threat barking as if to say "OMG COME ON." Another time, she was way ahead of me on the hill and she would stomp and threat bark until I caught up to her. Never have I left her in the dust.) No complaining on the pace here, it was a wonderfully warm day and I didn't mind sitting in the sun at all. But it was a little lengthy. After waiting probably 10 minutes Elizabeth and I continue on, assuming she is making her way to the other side. We get to the other side, and no sign of her. We cant see her anywhere on the hill, so we assume she is inside already. Got bored of us and left us behind (classic Jamie move). We get to the bottom of the hill, preparing to go inside and I turn around to say some thing to Elizabeth and I say "oh my gosh, look." Elizabeth turns around and who do we see barreling towards us from the top of the hill: JAMIE FRICKEN CHIMPANZEE. Hair standing on end, running full speed toward us. "Is this the last thing we see before we die?" We jokingly say as we yell to Jamie "OH MY GOSH WE ARE SO SORRY LADY! WE THOUGHT YOU WERE INSIDE!" She runs full speed all the way down the hill and directly inside, where we must go see her and take our *figurative* punishment.
Shockingly, once inside, she's not sharpening a stick to spear us with. She wants to groom some boots, so we oblige and again shower her with apologies. Good thing the Queen is *sometimes* merciful, am I RIGHT?
Jamie is tough. Stubborn. Sometimes a little cranky. But I take a lot of life tips from her, and her problem solving abilities. She's a tough cookie, but good lord is she the most confident being I've ever known? Yes. Always.
-b
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