Day Fourteen

Jackson likes to play with shoes.

Patti enjoys a blue ice-pop. Rachel (the other intern) spends time with Herbie.
Patti plays with a rubber ball.

Herbie is quite the model.

Day Thirteen

Herbie enjoys laying around and reading magazines. He is probably my favorite. We bonded today---he chewed up a paper cup for me as a present!
Herbie again.

Kimie loves the enrichment we put out for her to play with. She loves clothes and wearing them! How cute!!

Today, it was my job to weed and plant some corn...like a good Iowan. It also entailed climbing a ten-foot tall compost pile to pick out the best horse poop. Love it.

Day Twelve

I can’t say I did anything overly interesting today. Basically, we cleaned the enclosures and then weeded the strawberry patches.

I felt the temperature drop considerably and then the winds started picked up speed. We decided a massive storm was coming so we rushed to collect all of tools and ran inside. The power went out a few times, but it looks like the sun is peaking through now.

The chimps were good today. They were pretty calm and took a lot of naps.

Day Eleven

A list of today’s interesting activities:
1) Pissed off a bunch of ants while weeding---They angrily marched up my arm until I flicked them.
2) Learned how to drive a Kia stick-shift truck. Let me just say, manual driving is not my thing. There is too much to think about including trying not to hit the dog.
3) Stepped in mounds of chimp poop multiple times.
4) Weeded the tallest, fuzziest plants I have ever seen which weigh roughly 20 pounds each.
5) Talked to Mr. Herbie, the beta chimp. He really likes to suck his thumb which is so cute, but apparently blowing bubbles doesn’t interest him at all.
6) Watched two female chimps groom each other---an act of social bonding that establishes hierarachy.

Day Nine and Ten

The chimps decided to be my personal wake-up call this morning. I’m not sure what is happening, but I think Herbie is not a happy guy right now.

What happened yesterday is something I never thought I would see. Patti, the alpha female, was examined by her veterinarian and two vet. techs from the Portland Zoo. I can’t go into what all she had done, but we got to watch everything from behind the Play House window---looking into the exam room which was the converted Chimp Kitchen. What an experience!

Afterwards, all Chimps Inc. staff and the vet staff had dinner in the intern house---around our picnic table---and stuffed ourselves with vegetarian lasagna, salad and brownies. It was a long day---suppose to be the intern’s day off too, but I didn’t mind helping out because this was such an important day.

Today will be another full day of work and from the looks of the sky, perhaps a rainy day too.

Day Eight

The arid climate has finally shown its hot colors in Oregon. The morning started out freezing and then by midday, we were sweating like crazy.

Patti, the alpha female, is having some medical issues that are causing quite the stir here. Veterinarians will be coming by tomorrow to further analyze.

Rachel and I wanted to display our Jackson Pollock talents so we painted pictures for the chimps’ enrichment. I did a portrait of Herbie you can see below. I must say, the similarity is uncanny.

After we did our daily weeding, we went on a walk around the nearby ranches and trails. It felt like we were in the Southwest---I still can’t believe Oregon looks like this.

Day Seven

Today was all about bonding with the chimps.

After the morning cleaning, Greg and I drove the old truck to a barn on the ranch. We loaded up an old couch and brought it back to Chimps Inc. Then, we placed it in the playhouse for enrichment. Within a couple of hours, that couch had definitely enriched the chimps!

Later, Rachel and I were weeding in the garden closest to Herbie’s enclosure. We stopped to play with him for awhile. We blew bubbles and talked to him. He was tired though and left us. He climbed up on a platform and started leisurely reading a magazine, stopping, of course, to look at pictures of landscaping.

Last night, all the interns had a night on the town! Essentially, meaning we went into Tumolo and ate at a restaurant…but it was nice to see something new. We dined at Tumolo Feed Co. and were greeted with a good ol’ “Howdy.” Men in cowboy hats sat around wheel-tables and some were square dancing with their lovely ladies to a live country singer behind saloon doors. I really had no idea I was in Texas!

Tomorrow is our half day and then Tuesday, it’s free. What shall I do?