Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest,  does not monkey around when it comes to birthdays! Recently, sanctuary resident, Foxie, turned 38 years old. Complete with colorful party cups, troll doll party favors, and Dora the Explorer plates and piñatas, the birthday chimp has more to celebrate than just another year with her friends.

Before arriving at the CSN, Foxie was sed for hepatitis vaccine research. During her time as a research chimp, she was injected with vaccine tests and shipped between several different laboratories. She also served as a breeder for the biomedical research industry and had five babies taken from her during her imprisonment, some of her children were stolen from her arms just days after birth.

When Foxie was released from the research industry to the sanctuary, she immediately adopted a Troll doll with hot pink hair. Workers at the sanctuary believe that this is a coping method for Foxie to deal with the painful memory of losing her children.

When she is not caring for her dolls, Foxie enjoys foraging for fruit, making people smile with her pirouettes, and somersaulting around her enclosure–activities that would have been impossible to carry out in the tiny lab cages in which she used to reside.

A very Happy 38th Birthday to Foxie from all the Green Monsters here at One Green Planet, and a big thank you to the amazing people at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest who made it all possible.