… if the idea of doggy stylists, and cat psychologists touch a chord with you, then this is a story guaranteed to make you gooey eyed and say “tho’ thweet’. The world’s first government sponsored retirement home for chimps.

This past spring, in a secluded patch of forest in northwest Louisiana’s Caddo Parish, a singularly bizarre bit of evolution unfolded. There, amid the sun-dappled pines and flitting birds, a pair of 40-something chimpanzees named Rita and Teresa — lifetime research subjects who were originally taken from Africa for use in NASA’s space program — became American pioneers of a whole other sort: the first beneficiaries of an inspired piece of retirement legislation passed by the United States government. Under the watchful eyes of animal behaviorists, veterinarians, enrichment specialists and daily caretakers, Rita and Teresa checked in on the afternoon of April 4 at the recently opened Chimp Haven, the first federally financed, taxpayer-supported retirement home for chimpanzees.

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