Construction Update: Good News & Bad News
The first steel going in at Bonz Villa
The inside cages largely finished
Steel awaiting assembly in Group Building. Can you spot Kelly?
Sad News at Gorilla Haven, as Economic Reality Sets in: Friday, February 29, 2008 was Leap Year Day. I wish we could have leaped right over it, but instead, we had one of the worst days in Gorilla Haven history. No one died or was injured or sick, but it sure felt that way.
In the past several years, as costs sky-rocketed, we were able to maintain our financial course with careful planning. We estimate since starting the Gorilla Haven project in 1996, we have spent several million dollars of our own personal income – 100% of that money earned by Steuart. We could be living a wonderful and care-free life in retirement, but instead are proud to see what we’ve accomplished – especially when we look at Joe and Oliver, and the myriad of conservation projects, people and animals that Gorilla Haven has supported over the years.
Steuart’s income from his software company has decreased alarmingly as technology changes. Instead of relaxing, Steuart is now working a hundred hours a week on a new product to address the changes in technology and hopefully restore our finances. After a careful review of our expenses we were shocked when we lined up the numbers to see the trend of cost increases. Steel, gas, utilities, food, etc, have all gone up dramatically – anyone reading this website knows this all too well.
With increases in costs and decreases in our income, it was clear we could not continue to hemorrhage funds and protect the future viability of GH. We needed to do something drastic and so, in a multi-faceted approach for our future security, we had to cut back on expenses and re-arrange our priorities.
So with heavy hearts and moist eyes, we laid off our entire maintenance staff – three men: Randy S, Randy R and David H. As they left, the guys thanked us for the privilege of working here. There were no hard feelings – just deep sadness. Now it’s just Pete, Kelly, Steuart and I sharing the maintenance duties, as construction is temporarily on hold or will be contracted out, as needed. We’ll rely more and more on volunteers to help with mowing and gardening and have kept our part-time grounds worker, Mike, to help with bigger jobs, if/when necessary. It’s been a tough adjustment – it’s a lot quieter at GH now – but we all share the commitment to see this through and we know deep in our hearts things will improve with time.
Some Good News: As mentioned already, construction is more or less on hold. Bonz Villa’s interior steel work has been installed, and the steel for the interior of the massive group building has been manufactured and delivered, stacked up awaiting installation (our tent for the Arts-in-the-park fund-raiser is in the foreground!).
Gorilla Haven Tours & Fund Raisers:
One of many items we'll be selling - the GH postcard.
Gorilla Haven’s first major fund-raising effort will be at Blue Ridge, Georgia’s annual “Arts in the Park” to be held over Memorial Day weekend, May 24 and 25, 2008. http://www.blueridgemountains.com/festivals.html.
We’ll have a booth manned by volunteers with Kelly, Steuart and I taking turns running between Gorilla Haven (taking care of Joe and Oliver) and the booth. There will be a raffle to win a private tour of the Gorilla Haven and we’ll sell artwork from Africa and around the world and hopefully let locals and tourists to the area know about what we’re doing and why.
Then, we’ll have tour dates set up during the summer and fall. Keep checking our home page for the announcement of when those dates will be, including more details!
Left - The UGA team getting to know Joe.
Joe's Party Planners: Steuart, Kelly, Steve, Melanie and Jonathan.
Joe gets a preview of his special cake (above) before enjoying it (below).
Unfortunately, this is a common site with Joe, but amazing that Steuart caught it on film!
Purrrrrrrrr: A few weeks ago, after the lay offs, I was feeling especially sad and needed a gorilla fix, so I went up to see the Boys. Usually I don’t spend too much time with Joe, who gets annoyed if I hang out longer than necessary after the food treats run out. But on this quiet Sunday, I sat down with Joe for a discussion about my heavy heart. Joe sat listening and watching me as I cried and babbled on about how he’d always be taken care of, and we’d never let him or Oliver down, etc. After about 10 minutes of this, with Joe still sitting with his hands on the mesh, looking at me, I stopped talking and just sat there looking back at Joe.
Then history was made: Joe purred a long and distinctive purr as he looked at me.
Now, Joe is very vocal and purrs and rumbles at everyone else all the time, indicating his happiness or appreciation. But in the 10 years or so that I’ve known him, he’s never purred at me. Never! Since I was the only one in the villa at the time, there was no doubt the purr was for me. I wonder if he understood me and wanted to reassure me? But it made my day (indeed it made my life!) and I was smiling as I went back to work, knowing that Joe – like Oliver – may really like me after all!
5 years and counting: Joe celebrated his 5th anniversary at Gorilla Haven a couple days before the real date of March 30, 2008, since I was going to be out of town. We also celebrate Joe’s birthday on his anniversary, so he’s officially 45 years old now, and one of the oldest gorillas in captivity.
On Thursday March 27th, our good friend Jonathan Kang of the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon was visiting, as well as friends of my late Aunt Doris, Steve and Melanie Huber of Ashland, Ohio. We all decorated Joe’s yard with streamers, ice treats, scatter-feed (peanuts, spinach, grapes, green beans, etc), and made Joe a special “cake.” We took a small watermelon and carved thick slices as layers of the cake. Icing was strawberry flavored applesauce, and decorations included dried apricots, raisins, grapes, etc. We finished it off by making five “candles” out of slices of fresh mango.
Joe was watching us all with great intensity from one of his outdoor cages. Oliver watched from afar, probably wondering why all the people who had visited him earlier, were walking around in Joe’s yard. When the cake was ready, I gave Joe a close-up sneak-peek, as we prepared to let him out to enjoy his party. When Joe came outside, it was obvious he had been studying what we were putting where, since he went straight for the small paper cups of juice we had placed all over the yard, by-passing the watermelon cakes and ice treats en route to get every last juice cup first.
Joe’s regurg problems continue, despite our recent medical procedure in January, so we’re making sure he gets plenty of calories to maintain a healthy weight and we give him a variety of food, presented in all different ways, to keep his mind active too. In the video clip, you see Joe shake his head and spit up some food, but he continues eating as if nothing were wrong. Steuart even managed to get a photo mid-regurg!
Both Oliver and Joe enjoyed plenty of treats and slept well, after a long and fun-filled day of festivities and visitors. Oliver’s second anniversary at GH is in May, so we’ll be party-planning again sooner than we know!
My beloved Oliver had another bout of balantidium recently, discovered in the early stages by Kelly, so he never got sick, like he got the last time he had it (click here for more information).
But getting the awful tasting medicine into him is a challenge – even though this time, the flagyl was in pill form. We need to get 14 pills a day into Oliver, and he is like the fairy tale of the Princess and the Pea – he can detect and reject the flagyl, no matter how we try to hide or disguise it! You name it, we’ve tried it … mixed in yogurt, drinks (coca cola to lemonade), applesauce, thick peanut butter and honey sandwiches, etc, etc – he will taste the first bite, then reject the rest. I have to give him credit for being so clever. Someone suggested the intelligence of gorillas should make them candidates for being trained to take medicines, but I countered that you’d have to be less intelligent to willingly take something so foul-tasting!
We're happy to report Oliver is now b.coli free and enjoying the spring-winter weather. If you don't like the weather this time of year, just wait 5 minutes and it is sure to change! But Oliver and the goats are enjoying the fresh forsythia branches - a spring time treat.
Artwork by Chisato Abe.
Gorillas Galore: http://www.gorilla-haven.org/jrdavis-gorilla-studbook/ Our good friend Jim Davis has had his own unofficial gorilla studbook for years now, and recently has asked us to host the website, which we are happy to do. If you see any errors or oversights, please feel free to contact me.
Kids Saving Apes: http://www.freewebs.com/kidssaveapes/index.htm I received an email from Haley Stern, who started a website for kids to help apes …. It’s still in the initial stages, but I think it’s awesome when kids put their enthusiasm and talents to good use to help change the world. Keep up the good work!!
Jonathan takes care of the gorillas, Emma and Pitchou, after whom these two villas were named.
As we cut back on expenses, that includes travel, so except for essential trips, we’re sticking close to home. The month of April is filled with more guests from the zoo/animal welfare world, however, and the spring and summer are filling up fast.
Jonathan
Kang of the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon, visited GH again briefly. I
had been asked to drive him to the IPPL (International Primate Protection
League www.ippl.org ) members meeting in
Summerville, SC, and was pleased to have time with my “son” and dear friend,
to catch up on my other friends in Cameroon. It was IPPL’s 35th anniversary
and for some reason I was one of many asked to speak about Dr. Shirley
McGreal as part of “Shirley Fest” – a dinner honoring her life’s work. It
was a lovely break from work to visit the lovely gibbons and otters of IPPL
again, enjoying a special dinner with the gospel group, the Plantation
Singers (photo right) and catching up on amazing people working to help
primates/animals around the globe.
Soakie tiptoes through the tulips
Bladder stones removed from Soakie surgically, dime (~2cm) shows scale
Walnut
is now in foster care in New Jersey, awaiting a new home. Soakie had
surgery to remove bladder stones in early April. All our “babies” are now 10
years or more, and at time it’s difficult watching them become geriatric.
But Soakie is still playful (see video clip on right) and loves playing with
Bari, who has recovered fully from his neck surgery in December. A new male
kitty we named GB (for Greenbean) showed up inside the facility in late
February and has joined Greeni and Beani as facility cats. Yogi has
completely recovered from his run-in with the dogs in January, thankfully,
and seems much more affectionate and less aloof to me now – perhaps
remembering the extra care and love he received during his recuperation.