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Jun. 10th, 2006 04:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amalthyaThat's something I'd prefer never to have happen again...
I was sitting in the office when a guy from ICCN walks up with another guy carrying a chimp on a chain. It's tiny, and male, and puts things in its mouth and bites down hard.
No,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lauren_lief, he didn't get my thumbs...
Very traumatized, though. He was called "Johnny" but, since we've named all our other chimps after the locations they were brought in, I named him "Gari" which is Swahili for "car" since he was confiscated out of a car heading into Rwanda.
I brought him over to the house this afternoon after calling Eddy, the vet from MGVP, to come and check Gari out. He seems generally okay, but he's extremely malnourished and definitely has the big African inflated "i have worms" belly.
He seems generally friendly, though, with a definite preference for men over women. You can almost always tell what sex "mothered" an infant chimpanzee. Maybe if a woman had mothered Etaito he wouldn't derive such pleasure from smacking me in the boobs or stomping on them.
On an entirely non-boob related note, it's so disheartening to have another chimp come in. Maybe in a previous mentality I'd have thought it was exciting, but to see this tiny little guy, who has NO hair on his neck, btw, because of the chain/collar he's probably worn for the last 6 months or more, shitting himself in fear because he doesn't recognize another chimpanzee... a conspecific!
Balume, by far our best caregiver, is bonding with him now and trying to earn his trust. He'll calm down infinitely more if he has someone he knows will protect him. He'll spend the night with him tonight and maybe tomorrow he'll feel brave enough to mingle with the others.
Gari's already been forced into socialization by Okeysha, our Houdini, who managed to squeeze through the window bars and terrorize Gari, who shat all over the floor in response. When I left the house, they seemed to be calming down a bit, though, and Gari was actually letting Okeysha get within 3 feet of him without screaming.
He has a bit of a funny face -- eyes like Etaito, but his teeth are awful and he ends up hanging his mouth sort of like an old toothless man. I took lots of photos (so did Carol, actually) and I'll try to upload them tomorrow from the office once people are off my bandwidth.
I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed, but oh-so responsible. Everything was up to me, today, and feeling responsible for the safety and well-being of my kids only endeared me to them more. I'm working on the AWARE website (redoing it) and I'd ask that once I've got PayPal up and running that people consider donating?
You'd know for sure that none of the money is going to me ;) I used to hate it here, but over the last couple days I've felt like I'll never really leave Goma for good.
I was sitting in the office when a guy from ICCN walks up with another guy carrying a chimp on a chain. It's tiny, and male, and puts things in its mouth and bites down hard.
No,
lauren_lief, he didn't get my thumbs...Very traumatized, though. He was called "Johnny" but, since we've named all our other chimps after the locations they were brought in, I named him "Gari" which is Swahili for "car" since he was confiscated out of a car heading into Rwanda.
I brought him over to the house this afternoon after calling Eddy, the vet from MGVP, to come and check Gari out. He seems generally okay, but he's extremely malnourished and definitely has the big African inflated "i have worms" belly.
He seems generally friendly, though, with a definite preference for men over women. You can almost always tell what sex "mothered" an infant chimpanzee. Maybe if a woman had mothered Etaito he wouldn't derive such pleasure from smacking me in the boobs or stomping on them.
On an entirely non-boob related note, it's so disheartening to have another chimp come in. Maybe in a previous mentality I'd have thought it was exciting, but to see this tiny little guy, who has NO hair on his neck, btw, because of the chain/collar he's probably worn for the last 6 months or more, shitting himself in fear because he doesn't recognize another chimpanzee... a conspecific!
Balume, by far our best caregiver, is bonding with him now and trying to earn his trust. He'll calm down infinitely more if he has someone he knows will protect him. He'll spend the night with him tonight and maybe tomorrow he'll feel brave enough to mingle with the others.
Gari's already been forced into socialization by Okeysha, our Houdini, who managed to squeeze through the window bars and terrorize Gari, who shat all over the floor in response. When I left the house, they seemed to be calming down a bit, though, and Gari was actually letting Okeysha get within 3 feet of him without screaming.
He has a bit of a funny face -- eyes like Etaito, but his teeth are awful and he ends up hanging his mouth sort of like an old toothless man. I took lots of photos (so did Carol, actually) and I'll try to upload them tomorrow from the office once people are off my bandwidth.
I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed, but oh-so responsible. Everything was up to me, today, and feeling responsible for the safety and well-being of my kids only endeared me to them more. I'm working on the AWARE website (redoing it) and I'd ask that once I've got PayPal up and running that people consider donating?
You'd know for sure that none of the money is going to me ;) I used to hate it here, but over the last couple days I've felt like I'll never really leave Goma for good.
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Date: 2006-06-10 03:14 pm (UTC)What's a conspecific?
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Date: 2006-06-10 03:18 pm (UTC)And a conspecific is just someone else who is in the same species :D
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Date: 2006-06-10 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-10 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-10 04:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-10 04:37 pm (UTC)Did she get punished?
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Date: 2006-06-10 05:07 pm (UTC)I'm open to any other suggestions, though.
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Date: 2006-06-10 05:09 pm (UTC)Woa, that's a BIG punishment! Definitely good for making a point about lying, though!
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Date: 2006-06-10 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-11 07:24 am (UTC)I would absolutely agree with the selection of punishment, though. I might even make it 2 weeks without tv.