ShitStorm 2011 and the Cow who licks all the things.

Busy week full of new animals, birthdays and more adventures. 

This week I got a chance to visit our horses. They don't live on property but are about 15 minutes away and it was nice to finally meet them in person! 

Summer 

Annie 

Magic, Summer, Lola and Annie are all available for adoption! Magic is known as a giant dog and I couldn't get a photo of him because I had cookies and he was all up in my business trying to get them! And Lola was close up right behind the fence, but they are all so beautiful and majestic! I have to admit I was taken by Annie right away- she is beautiful and fragile but at the same time so fierce. I hope I'll have more time to visit her and the rest of the horses! 

Chelan, Mahale Mountains, CSNW and out at cows are my favorite geographical locations on this planet. Sitting in the sun with Norman, Bessie, Baby and Blue is the best place to be on the farm. I go out there for lunch and read and eat cuddled up with Norman as he slowly drifts to sleep. Sometimes I sit with Blue who prefers to eat the entire time and then there's Baby: 

My "baby selfie" 

Baby likes to lick me. Baby will lick my shirt, my arms, my face, my knees, my butt literally every part of me he feels like. He reminds me of a big dog sometimes, like maybe he's happy to see me? Who knows. But he is a big sweetheart who I love dearly. 

Bessie

Bessie hates my camera. When I come out to cows with my camera around my neck she is up and out of there. This photo was taken on my phone, which she doesn't seem to mind. Bessie is 20 years old and the only lady out with the 4 boys. They love her and protect her if anyone seems to be bothering her. Example: When the flies are bad and we need to spray them with some fly repellant, Bessie heads for the hills- she doesn't like anything being "sprayed" on or near her. (Your best chance at anything like that is to spray it into your gloves and rub it on her) but if you try to catch her for too long and keep bothering her, the boys will chase you our of the field. They love her, and will protect her from harm! 

and of course: BABY TIMES! 

Dudley

Radar

Marvin

Indiana 

Days with these guys are always crazy but always THE BEST. They are super sweet, love human interaction and are always ready for snacks! I'm sure I'm heard around the sanctuary laughing hysterically or screaming "CHEVY!" as he's chewing on my hair or trying to climb me. I'll be sad to see them go but so so SO happy for them to have forever homes! 

I'm prepping for an art show that is now Pasados & Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest themed! I've got some great photos blown up and getting framed. Details soon! 

Birthday week was a success. Queen Butters turned 5 and my best friend/husband/life partner celebrated 27 and we all survived to talk about it. 

The Queen Today

I've had Butters (then Bartholomeow) since she was just over 8 weeks old from a friend who's cat had kittens. Was I allowed to have animals at the house I was renting? No. Do you think I even stopped to think about what would happen if they found out I had a cat? Definitely not. Butters is actually truly my child, my first born fur baby and there is nothing I wouldn't do for her. If you think that's crazy or weird, then you don't really know me at all. 

My favorite Butters memory was in the fall of 2011 shortly after I brought her home. Butts and I have a very similar character arc- we started out friendly and nice and now we hate everyone. Literally everyone. If you've ever come over to our house chances are you've never seen her or at least seen her at a distance. She's grumpier now that she lives with two more boys (I'll leave reading between the lines to you) but anyway. She always always ALWAYS slept on the bed with me, cuddled in real close on my pillow and now she won't even sleep on the bed (because Jasper and Raleigh sleep there now.) On the rare occasion she will cuddle while I nap but I do believe she feels outnumbered and is a little resentful to me for bringing home more boys. 

ANYWAY

I was working on some homework before we had to go to rehearsal for some show or another and Princess Butters was doing her post-poop exercise. YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT: when your cat goes #2 and then needs to run around the house as though they just lost 10lbs in the litter box? YEAH THAT. At the time my keys were on a lanyard that I could wear around my neck, and they were hanging off my chair. In her running around like a madwoman she ran through the lanyard and was inadvertently wearing my keys. She was so scared that she had something loud and heavy around her neck that she began running faster and crazier trying to get them off. She was pooping and peeing and running into walls trying to get away from the lanyard. I couldn't get my hands on her to help and after they had fallen off she was growling/swiping at me perched on top of my rack of clothes while simultaneously pooping and peeing on all of them. The sweetest most cuddliest kitten I had ever known was hissing and growling at me like I had thrown the keys on her as a joke- and I couldn't get close to her to clean her up! I call Lars in a panic and he can barely hear me over her growling and crying. Dearest, sweetest Lars comes over and throws a blanket on her and we get her into the bathroom to clean the poop- while she growls and hisses at both of us. 

Needless to say we were late to rehearsal. 

Lars affectionately refers to that time as "ShitStorm 2011" and it's all too accurate.

My keys no longer live on a lanyard. 

She is sassy, headstrong, stubborn and the most beautiful cat ever, and I can't believe SHES FIVE. This must be how human parents feel at every birthday. 

The next day, this guy turned 27. <3 

LFJ or now LJ has been my best friend, main squeeze, ROCK for over 10 years. Celebrating 27 felt like celebrating 17 all over again- except this time finding a present for him was genuinely 10x harder.

My husband puts up with a lot- because in all genuine seriousness, I'm completely off my rocker. But day in and day out he is unwavering in support and love. Thankful cannot even begin to cover it. Lars and I are headed to our favorite place in the world for a few days, Chelan here soon and there will be MANY beautiful photos of the lake to come. 

More to come!

b

Harley my Grandpa and the never-ending honeymoon.

Photo: My goat friend Harley. 

Time moves differently on the farm. 

I'm not sure if people who have spent their whole lives on a farm notice that, but at least for me I can officially say that the days are an actual blink in time. I get to work on most days at 8:30 and after what feels like 45 minutes, I'm in the car on the ride home. 

In almost every other job I've ever had, there's a "honeymoon" period where the days go by fast because you are having fun and new things are still being learned and the excitement  of all that keeps you engaged and thoughtful about things happening around you. Then, it becomes just your "job"- the thing you do to pay the bills. Your days are the same every. single. day and you no longer are excited to get out of bed. You live for the weekend, and then you are happy and enjoying life again. 

Starting my 4th month with Pasados and I still LOVE when the alarm goes off. I'm still always excited and in general disbelief that I finally have a job like the one I have. Even on the "hard" days. Will the honeymoon die? I honestly don't think so- because I truly down to the core love the job. 

For instance: last week, spending some time with the Warrior Pigs. No, not forceably cuddling or interacting, but just sitting near them while they were napping and relaxing. 

(L-R): Gabby, Xena and Hercules.

Hercules getting some alone time. 

There are never boring or slow days on the farm. Some days are quieter than others, but all days move with such efficiency that I have a handwritten list along with a list on my phone of to-do's that sometimes I rarely get to. On every day of the work week I have eyes on 50+ ruminants who call the sanctuary home. And I am not of the belief that walking by the pasture a few times a day is "spending time." I like to hang out a while, check body condition, see if anything looks weird/different and just give them time to get comfortable with me. These are not chimpanzees who never be moved or adopted- these animals will moved to their new forever homes and need to be comfortable with people and interaction with humans if nothing else for the purpose of feeding and meds. Often times they need to be "re-trained" for lack of a better term, to like humans again- particularly if they were the victims of cruelty and/or neglect. 

BUT if I don't get to my lists, it's because other pertinent time sensitive activities come up. 
OR I haven't seen an animal for more than a few minutes that day and I want to spend some time, checking in on everyone. 

For example, my friend Harley Goat. 

Harley with his buddy Alfie Alpaca. 

Harley is an old guy with old joints and spends most of his days with his buddy Alfie who lives in the pasture with him. Sometimes they have words, but most of the time they ignore each other in opposite sides of the pasture. Alfie is not a huge fan of humans, but Harley likes people once he gets to know them. When I first started interacting with Harley he was very standoff-ish and not sure about me. Now, he will walk right up to me and demand rubs between his horns, which I of course oblige him with. Harley is as smart as a whip- he knows exactly how many crackers you are putting on his meals and when we need to trim hooves he scoots away as quickly (pretty slowly) as he can. 

Harley smells like a grandpa- in the best possible way. I've never met any of my grandfathers, but I've known plenty of older folks and Harley smells exactly like the smell you are imagining when you think of visiting your grandparents. His beard is glorious, and some days I'm convinced he managed to wash it, when it's extra shiny and soft. 

Wanna foster or adopt Harley? YOU CAN! http://www.pasadosafehaven.org/adopt/farm/#petid-27011170

(also; I love Harley A LOT and he deserves the best of the BEST. SO you should probably plant some sunflowers, because he loves sunflower leaves as a treat.) 

Most of my days are closing shifts now, which means I do PM meds/ closing in other animals as needed. It's my ALL TIME FAVORITE thing ever. I have a unwavering and true love for ruminants but some days you want to go see the dogs, or the cats, or the pigs but you just don't have the time. Closing means I usually go to all parts of the farm to check on everyone one last time before bed. Goodnight snuggles with almost everyone on the farm? OH YEAH IT'S HAPPENING. 

Perhaps one of the best parts of being at Pasados is that sometimes Lars comes to help me with all my chores, and sometimes that just means playing with babies while I clean.: 

Louie and I: 

Lars and baby Ichabod.

The baby goats are very much a huge, time consuming, cuddly part of my day. These guys are still getting over some upper respiratory infections so wiping noses is a must- but after all that is done, we get to run around in the field and jump on rocks (and mostly me) and relax in the grass. It's a pretty sweet life, being a baby goat at Pasados. 

Jamie taking a walk around Young's Hill. 

Jamie (and the other beautiful souls) are all doing well- including avoiding fires already this summer in Cle Elum. Flames were making their way towards the chimp house but the firefighters in the area did another excellent job getting things under control. 

Annie napping in the greenhouse. 

Annie spent some time last week grooming my bare feet, and head nodding during the event- happy to see some naked feet! Shortly after, Jamie let Annie and I know we were done hanging out, and then demanded we walk around young's hill. 

Having a real weekend means real trips to REAL PLACES. I finally got to visit my friend Meg who is going to Veterinary School at WSU and see all of the cool things she is up to. Seeing and hearing all the things she's doing and learning makes me want to go back to school! Classes like "Small animal anatomy" sound so interesting and super helpful for my current job. I could have stayed in the Anatomy museum for HOURS soaking up all of the models and information about muscles and what part of the foot moves the other part and ALL THE RUMEN I mean GOODLORD I could have looked at all the rumen in there for forever. 

We also got to visit Palouse Falls, and it was beautiful! One of the places I've been wanting to visit in Washington State. 

I am actually genuinely addicted to the heat. While its 90 degrees and no wind out and everyone is miserable, I'm in HEAVEN. When it's 65 out and sunny- I'm in a sweater. So being on the east side where it's all sun was great. I saw an acutal movie in an actual movie theater (which hasn't happened in a long while) and it was glorious and I sobbed throughout the movie. #gorillasmakemeemotional #tarzanisahunk 

July will be a quiet(er) month as most of our vacations are in August/Sept but it is the month of Lars' and Queen Butters' birthdays. Stay tuned for the madness! 

B

New Job/ New Blog/ HAPPINESS.

"Find yourself and be that." 

"Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end." 

"I'm gonna make the rest of my life the best of my life." 

and an infinite amount of other pretty words about change. 

I've been gone for a while I guess. The last post says 11/17/15. Whoops.  There have been quite a few changes in my little world for the first 6 months of 2016 and I'm finally at a place where I can talk about all of them. HUZZAH. 

Summer solstice has arrived and I feel like I'm finally my element! Lars and I are both summer babies and it's our favorite season- for the warmth (of course) and camping season. The amount of travelling and activities we jam into the 4 months of good weather is almost physically impossible, but we've got some to make up for since last summer was the #jorgensenwedding2015 and lord we barely made it out of there alive. (Literally and physically. Thank you for all the views and comments on the blog about the wedding- that post was especially hard to write and even read sometimes.) 

I'm realizing now that "quite a few changes" is actually really just "a huge career shift" but after it's all said and done it felt like a snake shedding it's skin 6 times back to back. Awkward, possibly painful but so unbelievably necessary. Sometimes you have to strip yourself completely to get to the core of YOU, your being, and figure out exactly what you want. I'm finally realizing that what you want is a concept that's always shifting. I used to think that everyone had one specific goal or destination in life and you get on one path to that place.  Now, thankfully, I see that you can get off the path whenever you want or need. You can make a new path. You can CHANGE YOUR MIND.  and it's OKAY. Some people have been aware of that for years, and I envy you. 

Knowledge is power though right? 
Now I have the power. LOOK OUT. 

First and foremost, I left Forever 21. Which to be honest, was difficult because in a weird way I loved that job. Yes; it was a minimum wage customer service job with a ton of high school/ early college folks who had lots of drama but I made a few good friends who made the job a fun place to be. My OCD loved organizing clothes, making things look good, helping people find outfits for work or special occasions and other things of that sort. I took a job I just couldn't pass up- as an animal caregiver that was my new first priority and had to walk away from one of my two jobs. (and, at the exact same time a new district manager was hired for Forever 21 and was putting rules in place like "No visible tattoos" and "Normal hair cut and color" which made my skin crawl.) 

So, for a few minutes there, I was working 3 jobs at one time. Forever 21, Tin Umbrella Coffee and Pasado's Safe Haven. 

Without disclosing too much boring and unnecessary rambling. I'll just say that I work at Pasado's Safe Haven as a Animal Caregiver full time and that is my only job and I am completely and sincerely over the moon happy with what I am doing now. 

To be honest, I was doing too much and was completely burnt out. I had a job I've wanted my whole life and a job I was doing to pay the bills and I had to make a tough decision. I had to be respectful to MYSELF and those who were counting on me. I couldn't work 80+ hours a week anymore, I had to truly dedicate myself to my passion and let go of things I couldn't fix or give enough time to. After a certain amount of time of trying, we all have to walk away at some point right? Working yourself to the bone benefits no one. A hard lesson to learn for a workaholic like myself. 

I took a substantial decrease in pay, and I have never been more happy with a job in my entire life. 

Even on hard days when it's pouring rain and I'm out in a pasture with no escape from it. 

Even on days when I've been on my feet for 10+ hours running around lifting things, moving things and catching heavy animals. 

Even on days when I leave the house at 645am and get home at 930pm. 

Even on days when I slept for 2 hours and my alarm goes off at 4:30am. I spring out of bed like I slept for 12. 

and THAT is how you know you are living your dream. When all of those things are happening and you still can't wait to go to work. 

It's the first time in my 24 years of life that I have truthfully only had one job, and as weird as it is it's definitely necessary. Pasados is hard work, long days and physically demanding as much as mentally demanding- and it's a dream job that I can finally say is MINEEEEEE! 

Now, this blog is about chimp friends and farm friends. Two sides of the coin, it feels like on some days.  Thus, "Chimpin' Around the Farm" seems like a good new blog title for my ramblings here. 

Please visit pasadosafehaven.org for more about what we do, and some fun upcoming events. Or come visit me at work and snuggle some animals! 

The Cle Elum 7 are all still living the dream and I see them a little less but still close to every week, and it's still my favorite place in Washington State. I'll have more photos and accounts of days with them as well. (Including an art show in August! If I ever start the paintings, because even though I've been doing it a while it still intimidates me to look at a blank canvas.) New interactions, (like Jamie chimp laughing at me and GIVING ME A KISS for the first time since I've known her) and other such things, to come! 


I spent (entirely too much) on a new fancy camera and have been taking photos of literally everything, but mostly my farm friends and chimp friends and I can't wait to share them on this outlet. Here are some photos from June I took at CSNW:

Foxie: 

 Jamie: 

 Lars got this shot of me serving Missy some lunch (Negra seated to my left.) 

Lars and the kids and I are doing great, just adjusting to a new work schedule and what that looks like for seeing each other, and seeing all the animals at work and at home. I'm so happy to say that now that I have only 1 job and 3 days weekends, Lars and I actually get to spend some time together, REAL time for the first time in years. We can go places and take real vacations and it's very strange.

Like 2 weeks ago when we went to Victoria BC for my favorite woman in the whole world to do her IronmanTri! 

 There are probably even more changes in the future, and I can't wait to see what happens! Here are just a few photos from Pasado's: 

Banjo dog and I: 

 Clarence and Jesus: 

Rainier: 

 My favorite animal on Pasado's property: Norman. <3 

I am so exicted to be back and blogging about my adventures, with new better photo skills and a list of amazing trips this summer/fall. 

Stay Tuned! 
b 

Hibernation & Heated Floors

Smelly Mel aka Mel aka Melvin (my jeep) is back, and successfully got me to the chimps on Sunday and Monday! Praise whatever deity helped me out with that one! Phew. 

Sunday and Monday had a recurring theme at the chimp house- hibernation. Even though the pass is becoming a treacherous part of the journey and the temperature continues to fall in Cle Elum, the chimps have a warm living space, including heating in the concrete floors of their play areas. Honestly, I was playing with Foxie in one of the front rooms and we were both laying on the floor with our feet in the air each holding a troll doll- and I was pretty damn comfortable. Lars can attest, I find sleeping on floors very comfortable. Some days I do prefer to nap on the floor with just a blanket over me rather than my bed. But, with the heated floors in the chimp house, I really could have just taken a nap right there with Foxie. 

(photo stolen from CSNW's blog)

While Foxie may look uncomfortable on the floor in the picture above, I can tell you from experience, it's pretty darn warm. 

What you can't see in this photo is Jamie in a HUGE pile of blankets, and to anyone who didn't know these chimps it would look like Foxie was cast out of the welcome circle and Jamie sent her out there with no blankets. 

With the weather like it is, the chimps spend most of the day sleeping- and who can blame them! It's so warm in the chimp house that all you want to do is grab a few blankets and get some shut eye. Jamie took me for one walk, actually a run. She was asking for walks all day but as soon as I would get a boot on and go meet her in the door to the hill she would take one step outside, feel the wind and rain sprinkles and go right back inside. She looked so frustrated everytime- all she wanted to do was take a stroll but the weather was not ideal. Finally she got the nerve to go, and we ran around the entire hill. She didn't want to be out in the cold any longer than she had to. 

In days of hibernation it's really hard to spend any quality time with anyone. Most of the chimps are out of sight in a huge pile of blankets. Sunday I grabbed the Ipad to see if Jamie wanted to play her favorite mouse catching game- where a mouse runs across the screen and you have to tap it with your finger to make it squeak and eventually kill it. I didn't see Jamie at first so I turned on the animal sounds app for Foxie. Fox doesn't really want to play the games as much as she just tries to grab the ipad from you. She will nod her head like she wants to play the game or paint on it but then she will just stick her fingers as far through the caging as she can trying to grab a corner of it to wiggle it out of your hands. She does- however- love the animal sounds app. Exactly like it sounds, it shows a picture of an animal and when you click on the photo the sound the animal makes comes out. Foxie was very excited by the chimp noise- running around and even did a backflip. Jamie heard the commotion and came down to see- and wanted to play the mouse game. So we squished the mouse a few times, she groomed my boots and watched me brush my hair. Then she went back into her bed. 

Even B was out of sight, except for a few moments of play where he came down to stomp at me and kiss my hand. Like a true gentleman. :)

In other news:

With all of the commotion and money spending in October I decided to look for another job. Now, let me say, because I know you all are thinking it, I am a busy person. BUT I'm not so delusional that I can't tell when I have too much on my plate. During my senior year at PLU I over committed myself beyond belief and I will never be that busy ever again- but a silver lining to that time in my life when I was crying almost everyday is that I found my maximum. I learned how much was too much, and I am no where near that level of stress, I promise. There are a lot of things in my life right now that cost money, and in order to keep doing the things I want I need to have a little more cushion that the 0.00 I'm working with now. I applied at Forever 21, and was hired on the spot. I'm oddly excited to be working with clothes, as most of you know, I am obsessed with shopping and fashion, and it's going to be the perfect thing for my OCD organizing tendencies. So, I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes. 

Big dreams mean hard work. And if I have to sacrifice sleep to live in Africa and open a sanctuary then I will. 10000x over, I'll do it. 

Jasper is doing better, Raleigh is back to his normal bubbly self and Queen Butters is going in for a check up- things are looking up! Lars and I continue to purge and get rid of unnecessary things in the house, and it's looking emptier and emptier every day.  We acutally had a day off together and went out to a real restaurant (without a drive thru) and relaxed. Which, for the two of us and our schedules, is quite a feat. My next project is making our annual holiday cards. Never a dull moment around here. 

Shamless Plug: the 2016 CSNW calendars are here! Order one, they are wonderful. Learn about my 7 favorite non-humans and share the gift with others! My dad always looks forward to getting his calendar. 

That's all for now. With black friday approaching, please remember CSNW on Give Big Tuesday. (or for christmas gifts check out their wish list!)

<3

-b

October: The month that tried to push me over the edge.

And just like that, I've missed a month. I am sincerely not a fan of trying to blog one month at a time- too much happens to try to shove it all into one post, but here we are. 

I'd like to write briefly about giving life the middle finger. 

Now, I usually don't like to blog with an angry undertone, I feel it's better for writing in a journal and personal venting space but this past month has been arguably one of the most stressful in recent years. Yes, I'm including wedding month in that, you know- that major life event I had to move to a new location less than 9 hours before it started. 

On my way home from visiting my 7 favorite chimpanzees on Monday October 12th, I had been on I-90 for a whopping 5 minutes before my car made a loud clunk noise and began shaking almost uncontrollably. I lost most acceleration and could go a maximum speed of 40 MPH, on a road where most people are doing 75 mph- lets just say I didn't make a lot of new friends on the ride home that day. 

It would still drive- so I toddled on home. I took it to a Midas about mile from my house- for fear it wouldn't get any farther than that and dropped it off in the hopes that it would be back to me the next day. This was on Thursday October 15th. 

Midas calls on Monday to inform me that they have no idea what is wrong. They checked all the things they could think to check- I needed to take it to the Jeep dealership because it was a problem specific to a Jeep. So, after 4 days I still was in no hope of getting my car back. I took it to the Jeep dealership (luckily only another mile down the street) where after a day they said I needed a new computer-the current computer was no longer communicating with anything in the car. So, they ordered a new one but it's on back order. Could be 2-4 weeks. And with my luck, it was 4 weeks. The part was just delivered today, November 10th and I will *hopefully* have the car back tomorrow. At this point, the $1000+ bill is whatever- I'm just overjoyed to be able to get it back. 

During all this, Lars and I played musical cars with his car, his motorcycle, many uber trips and begging people to give us rides places. My husband is undoubtedly the sweetest and most understanding human I've ever known. I hate mooching. I despise being reliant on other people to lend me things and I felt and still feel horrible for borrowing Lars' car so often. Of course, classic Lars, was more than happy to help and doesn't mind being chauffeured around while I use the car. The straw that broke the camels back was yesterday when Lars planned to ride his motorcycle to work. He needed to be there early so he got up with plenty of time, got all his gear on, only to discover that his bike wouldn't start. After trying to troubleshoot, he called an uber- a last minute attempt to be on time. After 20 minutes of waiting his driver calls to tell him to cancel the trip and request a new one- he's been pulled over. And I'm at work thinking "Whoops. I have Lars' car. This wouldn't have been such a day if he just had the car!" So, wishful thinking that tomorrow I get my sweet Melvin back and our life is a little less hectic. 

In the end of October, Raleigh went into the vet to get looked at- he had a rash that had been only getting worse throughout October and was turning into scabs. The vet set him up with an antibiotic and a steroid for the rash- nothing too major. The real kicker was his teeth. He has 2-3 teeth that are in bad shape, and possibly need to be removed. Just a teeth cleaning- $800+. A teeth cleaning + 2 removals-$1200+. Great. And because I always want my animals to be in the best health possible, I scheduled it. Today he'll be going under and hopefully will come back with most of his teeth. 

Jasper is next. I came home from work to find his left eye swollen shut, watery and bright red when he could open it. It's 1pm on a Saturday, so I have to take him to the emergency vet ($$$) but the fun part is that Lars is in Olympia at rehearsal with our only car. So, Jas and I wait not so patiently for Lars to get home. Around 4:30 I take him to the vet and we wait in the emergency waiting room. We wait. We get bumped for a dog that needed attention right away. We wait. I search desperately for snacks. Nothing. We wait. We get bumped again for another emergency situation. We finally get into a room and a doctor sees Jas and immediately says pink eye. He's also got a corneal ulcer on his eye. He also might have a respiratory infection. We get the drops for his eye and leave. I arrive home at 8:30pm. The emergency vet is 15 minutes from our house. I spend $$$ on Jasper, and we get a cone. 

Until Jasper, I have never seen another animal so incapable of living in a cone. He thrashed around relentlessly trying to get it off. Ran into everything he could possibly run into. He has no idea how to eat with it, drink with it, and could only sleep if I pushed a blanket or pillow underneath his head, like the photo above. 

Follow up with our regular vet led to a diagnoses of kitty herpes. Yeah, that's real. Not on their sexual organs or anything, but Jasper has a viral infection that is a lot like herpes- meaning he will have outbreaks of being sick his entire life. His version of being sick is getting eye infections, ear infections and constant sneezing. The vet assured me it's typical in some cats, but I can expect outbreaks every few months. aka $$$. Which I don't mind, because I love that little shithead so much. 

Princess Butters' health remains unknown, because I didn't have enough money to take her in for a check up- the boys and all their problems took priority. *eyeroll* Boys, amirite. 

So, in short: Life is sucking all the money I have and I'm fighting like a little salmon swimming upstream, just trying to hold it all together. So, life, I'd like to offer you my middle finger. 

As thankful as I am for everything good in my life, I see someone is trying to test me here. And all I have to say is GOOD TRY BUT NOT TODAY. Sometimes, you have to just give life the middle finger. Haven't we already talked about my resiliency and strength? Good. Someone upstairs is vastly underestimating my ability to make sure my family has everything they need. 

In the background of all that noise: We are still in the process of suing our caterer, I got a second job working nights, I'll hopefully be headed to Thailand for a few weeks next year, my pink hair has finally faded into the color I wanted and we are preparing for the holiday madness. 

We did our annual holiday photo shoot with Mara and as usual she got some of my favorite pictures of us. I can't wait to get our Christmas cards and updates out! 

More updates on chimping in a few days- now that I have a car to go see them. :) 

B

An Excited Jamie & Pasado's Safe Haven

Most days when I get to the chimp house for the afternoon (as in I wasn't there first thing in the morning at 9am, I get there at 1230) Jamie is ready for a walk. Mostly because she knows that I will drop almost anything to go for a stroll with her, and after the morning when everyone is cleaning and can't go for a walk yet, she is beyond ready to get outside. 

I arrived at the chimp house on Monday around 11am, as I was picking up produce for the chimps in Seattle, and I came inside to say a quick hello to everyone. It's one of my favorite times in the chimp house; saying hello/good morning to the chimps because over the years you see reactions change. When I was first starting level 3 training, Jamie hardly cared that I was in her area. None of the other chimps even looked in my direction. Now, Jody offers me her swelling, Missy asks for a knuckle rub, Neg even gives me a head nod. It's those small things that I cherish more than anything. 

The only one inside on Monday was Neg, all bundled in her usual window spot. I went outside to check out the green house and there was a "dogpile" (for lack of a better term) of chimps. All hanging out and grooming each other. "Hey dude!" I say to Burrito as he comes stomping my direction. 

"Hi Ja-" I try to squeeze out a good morning to the boss and before I can even get her whole name out of my mouth she swings from the window ledge she was sitting in over to the platform and runs-pilo haired- to the door that allows the chimps access to Young's Hill and runs out, stomping and softly "whooo-oooo" ing a me. I know she wants to go for a walk, but I am initially confused. Walking with Jamie often comes with a series of shoe changes as I try to figure out which boots she wants me to wear. On this particular Monday, Jamie was so excited to go on a walk she didn't even need me to wear a special pair of boots- the ones I had on were fine. 

It's a pretty heartwarming moment, when the boss is so excited to see you and go for a walk that she just runs with full speed out to the outdoor enclosure, and stomps at you to hurry up! All in all we went for 3 strolls around the hill, one time with Bub. 

After all that walking, Jamie took a little rest on the platform in the greenhouse. 

Sunday I had the privilege to visit Pasado's Safe Haven. A 85 acre sanctuary in Monroe, WA home to cows, pigs, goats, cats and various other animals native to the PNW. We got to make vegan pancakes and decorate them for the pigs who reside there. 

Here are what the pancakes looked like as we were decorating them.

Here is Wilbur enjoying his plate:

Lars made a friend in Charlie Pig. 

We met a pig named Splash; who got her name by breaking free of a home not fit for her and swimming across a river to a neighbors house to freedom. She is quite a character- she likes to take rocks in her mouth and sort them. Spitting out the ones that are too sharp or not flat enough and saving the ones she likes in her sleeping area. She doesn't eat them, her mouth is just a rock tumbler, and it's pretty amazing. 

It was definitely a culture shock compared to caring for chimpanzees. The enclosures and safety protocols are quite different, and being in the actual living space with the animal was a little weird! I constantly felt like I was breaking a rule, but hey: we got to pet some pretty cute pigs! It was such a good experience, I would recommend a tour to anyone who is interested. It's always nice to see people doing good things for animals, and how hard people work to make lives more comfortable. 

Saturday I am excited to report that I am starting my CSNW tattoo collage; where each chimp at CSNW will be represented and carried with me forever. I can't wait for Eddy to work his magic again, and to show pictures. Who's the first chimp? Jamie you think? You would think that- but alas, it's not true! You shall see! 

-b