Are you ready to meditate with Kari?
Make sure that you're laying down,
You're comfortable,
Everything is just right,
The lights,
Your pajamas are comfy,
Your bedding is warm and comfy.
Try and lay still as still as you can and listen to the story.
You can keep your eyes open or you can close them and listen if you want to.
Let me tell you all about what's happening today.
Heidi,
Cherry and Veya were at the zoo.
They'd been planning a trip to the zoo for two months and they were finally at the zoo and they were so excited.
Cherry was beyond herself.
OMG OMG OMG OMG.
She was singing it all the way there in the car and now she was still singing it as they were walking through the zoo.
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.
I can't wait.
I can't wait.
I know what my favorite thing is that I want to do.
I know exactly what I want to do and I want to save it until last.
I want to see all the animals in the zoo,
Every single one of them,
But I also really want to pet some animals and we can do that in the petting zoo.
And that's going to be my favorite thing of all.
So can we do that at the end of the day and go there at the end of the day after we've seen all the other animals?
" Heidi didn't mind at all and Veya was totally okay with that.
So Cherry was over the moon.
They saw all the different animals that they wanted to see.
Some of them,
Some of the animals on the list for example,
For some reason Veya really wanted to see the mice.
I mean you go all the way to the zoo to see like elephants and lions and bears and tigers but no Veya wanted to see the mice.
So they had to make sure that the mice was on their list and when they got there and they were watching their mice running up tubes and going through tubes and hiding under hay and doing all the little mouse things,
Veya was just absolutely mesmerized.
They're so tiny.
Me like them because they're tiny.
Me think that I would never hurt a mouse even though lots of cats like to eat them and catch them and play with them and taunt them and do not very nice things to them.
I think I would be a very nice mummy cat and I would have a house full of mice and I would take very good care of them.
Me like mice.
Me think mice are the bestest animals in the world.
Me really really like,
I don't know what,
Me like their nose.
Me like their whiskers and me like their big big eyes.
They're so cute.
Veya went on and on and on and on about how wonderful the mice were and both Cherry and Heidi were getting slightly bored.
They had other animals on the list of things that they wanted to see.
They wanted to see zebras and they wanted to see elephants and you know what?
Heidi wanted to see the possums.
Another kind of strange animal but Heidi wanted to see the possums.
She always thought possums were really cool and since they only come out at night it's very rare that you really get to see them so she was going to take the opportunity of being at the zoo to meet a possum.
She did.
The possum was awesome and then they went to the reptile house.
Cherry loved the snakes.
The bigger the better.
You would think that you would be scared of big big snakes like boa constructors but no.
Cherry just thought they were amazing and they reminded her a little bit of the Harry Potter story and she really likes Harry Potter so she was very into their snakes at the reptile house.
They had some lunch.
They walked around.
They saw more animals.
They did the sky flyer thing where you can go from one end of the zoo to the other in one of those little capsules that go over the zoo that are horribly scary and they all really like that.
They weren't scared of heights at all.
Not like Cory.
Cory doesn't like heights but anyway they did that.
They did everything.
They had ice creams.
They had lots and lots of fun.
Ooh candy floss.
They ate candy floss at the zoo.
That was awesome and then eventually it got to petting zoo time.
Cherry's most favorite thing to do in the world.
The thing that she'd been excited about for months.
She couldn't wait.
When they got inside of the petting zoo area you had to wash your hands first of all and there was lots of different stations where you could wash your hands and sanitize them and Cherry thought that was a very good idea.
I have candy floss on my hands and I definitely know I have ice cream and maybe some animals don't like ice cream or maybe they'll smell the ice cream on my paws and they'll eat my paws.
I don't want that.
I've heard that pigs eat everything and there's a pig in here.
There's a potbellied pig and I heard that the potbellied pig was called Thomas and he was supposed to be really really friendly.
I want to stroke him first.
I want to pet him and say hello to Thomas first okay.
Everyone follow me.
Heidi and Veya followed Cherry and they found Thomas.
Thomas was a black potbellied pig with white big spots in different areas and he had a big white spot on his pig bottom and Cherry thought that was hilarious.
Oh my gosh that's so funny.
It looks like he's been sat in talcum powder or something or like snow or icing sugar or something like that.
It's so funny.
She thought it was hilarious and then they got to stroke the goats.
The goats apparently were called Fred and Randy and they were very friendly and if you fed them hay they extremely liked you.
They would lick you and nudge you a little bit with their heads.
Veya didn't like the goats.
She was a little bit frightened because she thought that they might hit her with their heads a little bit too strong because she'd seen videos on YouTube where sometimes goats can get very very angry and knock you over with their heads and she she no she didn't like that idea at all.
So she kind of stayed away from the goats but Heidi met the goats and Cherry met the goats and they had a very long conversation about what it was like to live in a petting zoo and then finally they met Snowy.
Snowy the rabbit was completely white with red eyes which were a bit frightening but still Snowy was very cute.
Cherry went over to meet Snowy first.
She went to pet Snowy and Snowy pulled away.
She went to pet him again and Snowy moved over to the wall and kind of hugged himself into a corner away as far away as possible that you could get.
Cherry said,
Are you alright?
I know that you're called Snowy and are you alright?
Because you seem to not be wanted to be petted or something and and like Fred and Randy the goats said that they really really like it in here in the petting zoo and they love to be petted and and when the kids pet them and and other animals pet them it makes them feel loved and it makes them feel special and they like it because it tickles on their backs and things like that.
Don't you like it Snowy?
Snowy shook his head.
Snowy didn't say anything he just moved his head from left to right like he was trying to say no and he was moving his nose and twitching his nose as if he was smelling Cherry while he was talking to her.
Cherry said again,
Well well if you don't like it why are you in here?
How come you're living in a petting zoo and you don't like being petted?
That doesn't make any sense at all.
That's like not very nice.
Can you not change?
Can you not go live somewhere else where you won't have to be petted?
Snowy finally started to talk.
He looked at Cherry and he said,
Well sometimes I do like to be petted.
Sometimes it's really nice because some children are very gentle and very soft and they stroke around my ears and they stroke around my chin and I really like that a lot but then some children are just awful.
Awful?
Said Cherry.
What do you mean they're awful?
Do they like,
Do they like,
Do they say horrible things?
Snowy said no no it's not that they say horrible things it's just that they're rough.
They don't even pet you very nice.
They pet you like they're hitting you and they hit you really hard and then some of the smaller children don't realize that they're doing it but they grab hold of my rabbit fur and they squeeze it really tight and get super excited about holding me and touching me and petting me and they don't realize that they're hurting me.
They squeeze so tight but normally that's the really young children that really don't mean to do it so I understand that and I don't get angry and they don't get upset but that doesn't mean I like it.
Who likes to be squeezed and hurt like that?
No one.
Cherry said oh OMG I never even thought about it from that perspective.
I never ever thought about it that an animal in a petting zoo might not want to be petted.
I always thought that they just would like,
You know like really really like it.
Like Fred and Randy like it.
That's really not very nice.
Is there any way that you can tell someone that you don't want to live in this part of the zoo anymore?
Maybe they'll put you like in a rabbit enclosure with lots of other rabbits and you'll have a lot of fun and you won't have to be petted.
Snowy said well it doesn't really work like that.
Unfortunately I can't tell any of the humans because they don't really understand me.
Luckily you understand me and the other animals in here understand me and we're all really good friends but the humans it's very rare that you get a human that can actually figure out what you want,
What you need,
How you feel.
They tend to be really caring empathic types of humans that almost can sense how you feel and sense how you think but that's rare.
Especially in a petting zoo.
Let's face it most of the people that come to petting zoos are small children and they just don't have the maturity to understand that maybe you don't want to be petted that day and there's no way that you could hurt the small children by turning around and biting them or something like that because then I would probably be named a mean rabbit and who knows what happens to mean rabbits said Snowy.
OMG you mean you could be like in trouble like your life could be in danger said Cherry.
Well said Snowy who knows who knows what happens to mean rabbits I'm sure they wouldn't want mean rabbits in a petting zoo think about it.
Oh gosh that's quite scary said Cherry.
I wonder if Heidi would know what to do she's always really smart with things like this I'm gonna ask Heidi if she know what to do she might be able to help.
Cherry went over to find Heidi she told her all about Snowy the rabbit situation Heidi came over and said have you tried using your body language said Cherry use your body language and turn away or scurry away into a corner or go under a table or you could possibly say if you think it's one of those humans that will understand you could you please respect my space you don't have to be mean about it said Heidi but you could say it if you don't want to be touched you could say please don't touch me could you please respect my space this is my space my personal space please don't enter into my personal space and please don't touch me when I don't want to be touched Cherry said oh yeah yeah that sounds really good I think that sounds good in fact we all should be able to do that Heidi because sometimes I don't want to be stroked and I'm sure I'm sure that people sometimes don't want to be hugged or touched can you imagine if you've got really really really kind of really really really smelly auntie and she wants to give you an hug and you don't want to hug it that's awful ain't it so I'm sure that if kids could say too if kids could say excuse me please respect my space please don't touch me this is my personal space I don't mean it to be offensive but I don't feel like being hugged right now okay can you imagine can you imagine how awesome that would be if kids could learn to say that to people when they didn't want to hug them because sometimes you know sometimes we feel like we have to hug people I know I do and sometimes I don't want to sometimes you feel like you have to hug them to be nice but sometimes I really don't want to and I bet everyone should do that I think that's great Heidi awesome advice awesome Snowy said that is really good advice and I do do the body language thing I try and move away or scurry away or hide under a table or pretend I'm eating things like that just so if it's a mean child they'll actually hopefully their parents will tell them to be gentle or they'll tell them not to be mean or something like that but sometimes the parents don't seem to notice and that's when some of the animals get a bit rough-housed and get hurt but said Snowy I am going to try the personal space statement I think that's a very smart thing to say and you're right it doesn't have to be mean I can say it in a very nice way but also say it firm at the same time because then the people will understand all the other animals will understand that I don't want to be touched right then I think that that's a very good idea thank you Heidi Heidi said you're welcome and she went off to talk to Fred and Randy again because they were very interesting goats they had all sorts of funny stories to tell about what had happened in the petting zoo and different kids and things like that oh my goodness it was hilarious and Heidi wanted to go back and listen to more stories before the end of the day because it was almost time that the zoo was closed the cats had an amazing day at the zoo they were actually pooped when they got back in the car so tired tired enough for them to actually take a nap the vibrations in the car and the humming sound that the car was making from the engine was very very hypnotic and relaxing and the bumps on the roads were helping them to be kind of juggled and bumped and shook to sleep all three of them slept very very heavily their entire bodies got sleepy and heavy and completely relaxed a little pause relaxed the legs relaxed even though whiskers got floppy and relaxed their ears the tiny little eyelashes everything was comfortable you
