Are you ready to meditate with Cori?
Make sure that you're all snugly and warm in your bed.
Mind stays still and quiet so you can relax your body and let go of your busy day.
It had been two weeks since Leo watched Sasha drive away.
Two weeks of plodding around the house,
Very,
Very depressed.
Tucker didn't know what to do with him.
He kept trying new things to try and cheer him up every day.
One day he brought him in a snail.
Totally grossed out Leo.
Tucker was wagging his tail all over the place with something in his mouth.
Leo,
Look what I found,
Look what I found Leo,
Oh my goodness,
You're not going to believe what I found Leo.
And then he plopped it out on the ground in front of Leo.
This big,
Gross,
Slimy snail.
The snail looked very confused and a little bit scared.
Its antennas were moving around really fast as if to say,
Where am I?
Where am I?
Tucker said,
Look,
It's a new friend.
And no,
It's not Sasha,
Because like,
You know,
I mean,
We all know that Sasha was really special and everything.
So yeah,
Obviously this,
This here snail is not going to be like a replacement for Sasha.
But this snail can be a friend.
I asked the snail what it's called and it just squealed at me.
And then I just picked it up anyway with my mouth.
And now the snail doesn't look very happy with me.
Look at it,
Look at its face Leo.
The snail looked as if it was snarling at Tucker,
If it could snarl.
Its little lip was all plucked up on the side and it and its eyebrows were all like pulled down together as if it was snarling its face.
Leo actually giggled at this and thought it was a little bit funny,
But just the smallest giggle and then it passed and he was depressed again.
Leo said,
Tucker,
Can you just take it outside,
Please?
Tucker picked up the snail in his mouth.
Sorry,
Snail,
He said before he did it and went back outside with the snail.
Another day,
Tucker was talking to a bird on the back garden.
He kept shouting Leo over and over and over again.
Leo,
Leo,
Come out to play.
Leo,
Come on quick.
I've met somebody.
They're so nice.
Leo didn't want to go outside.
He was just slumped on his bed.
Just staring at the ceiling.
All heavy and unhappy and depressed.
Tucker kept going and going and going.
Leo,
Leo,
Come on,
Leo.
Leo,
Come on,
Please.
For me,
Leo.
You still love me,
Leo.
Come on.
Leo eventually got up really slowly.
And plotted outside to go meet a crow that Tucker had made friends with.
The crow apparently was called Larry.
He was from around there.
He was a very happy chipper crow.
He was talking away.
Oh,
Yeah,
I fly over this way all the time.
Yeah,
It's got some nice trees around here.
And yeah,
There's some nice houses.
I like to sometimes sit on those tops of those houses over there.
Because like you see everything from over on that house over there.
This house over here,
Your house,
Is not so great when it comes to seeing everything.
But you know,
I really like to sit across the street.
Oh,
Leo just sighed and sighed.
He hadn't got the energy to listen to Larry the crow that was very chipper and happy and chatty.
Tucker had got the energy to listen to him all day.
They were chatting away about all sorts of things that you wouldn't think a dog and a bird would talk about.
Politics,
Money,
Fruit,
You name it.
They talked about everything.
The bird kept coming back for a few days and Tucker kept trying to get Leo back outside,
But it wasn't working.
Leo could do without Larry.
He just wanted Sasha.
He barely ate anything,
Which Tucker was very happy about because Tucker always eats Leo's leftovers.
Tucker was getting fatter.
Leo was getting thinner.
And it didn't go on like this forever.
One day,
Tucker came inside and decided to try Tough Love.
Leo,
I've tried everything.
And this is like very desperate now,
Leo.
It's desperate because,
You know,
You're not like participating in the world.
You're so quiet and you're so like,
Don't move around and you don't play and you barely eat and you've got no energy and you barely smile anymore.
And this is me,
Leo,
Giving you Tough Love.
You have to cheer up.
I mean,
No girl is worth it.
And if you're a girl and you get dumped or left by a boy,
No boy is worth it.
You know why,
Leo?
Do you know why?
Because there's 10 million,
Billion dogs in the world out there that could be another one that's just for you.
Sasha,
Yes,
She was lovely.
Yes,
You felt chemicals.
Yes,
Your hearts blended together.
And you looked into her eyes and you were lost.
Yes,
I understand all of that,
Leo.
But you know,
It can happen again.
You talk to anyone that's been in love before and they'll tell you it can happen a dime a dozen.
Lots of times you can be in love.
You don't just be in love once,
Leo,
Your whole life.
That doesn't make any sense.
There's too many puppies on this world for you to be in love with just one puppy.
Leo listened.
It did make sense what he was saying.
I mean,
It was probably true what Tucker was saying.
But at the same time,
Leo's heart really hurt so much every day.
And he thought it was going to get easier.
But it didn't change and it had been two weeks and he was still moping around,
Still super depressed,
Still sniffing at the fence every time he went out,
Open,
Just dreaming that she would be back for some reason.
One day,
The neighbors that live next door came outside and they were puttering around in the garden.
Leo was barking through the wall,
You know,
Through the fence,
Trying to get their attention,
Trying to tell them,
When's Sasha back?
When will Sasha be back?
Is Sasha ever coming back?
But they didn't really listen to him and they didn't really understand him.
He was barking and barking and barking,
But nothing.
They didn't come over to the fence and say,
Oh yeah,
Sasha's back next week,
Which is what he was hoping for,
What he was pining for.
But it didn't happen.
And he would just drop his head really low and walk away from the fence.
He started to look at that fence as if he really,
Really didn't like it anymore.
Because every time he went over there,
She wasn't there.
He went from loving that fence to now hating it.
He was so sad.
One day,
They were watching TV and somebody was crocheting.
It caught Leo's attention for some reason.
They were crocheting a ball,
Making little sides and then stuffing it at the end.
Leo thought about crocheting.
Maybe he'd be good at that.
It was a quiet thing to do,
Something calming.
It wasn't too athletic.
He didn't need to exert himself in any way.
Tooker said,
If you like the look of that,
Leo,
I know mom's got some wool.
In fact,
I think mom's even got crocheting eagles.
I've seen a knitting before or crocheting.
And yeah,
The downstairs in that cupboard over there,
Leo,
Go have a look.
Leo got up and he walked over to the drawer in the kitchen where Tooker was pointing to.
Poked his nose in the crack and pulled it open.
And he was right.
There was wool and there was different size crocheting eagles.
There were knitting eagles.
There were knitting patterns in there.
It looked like it must have been mom's craft drawer or something.
He pulled out a color.
It was just like off-white.
It reminded him of Sasha's fur.
And then he just plucked any old crochet needle because he got no clue what he was doing at this point.
And he carried it in his mouth over to his bed and he slumped back down.
Nice choice,
Said Tooker.
Now what are you going to do?
Leo said,
Maybe we should watch some YouTube channels because YouTube videos have everything,
Don't they?
You can learn everything on YouTube,
Tooker said.
You're so smart.
That's right,
Leo,
You can.
I mean,
You can get lost in YouTube for hours and hours and hours watching different videos.
Yeah,
Let's have a look.
Tooker,
With his paw,
Pressed on the buttons to turn YouTube on.
And then they found Crochet for Beginners.
They watched about five different videos together.
Tooker decided he was too active for crochet.
And it would drive him nuts having to sit there and focus and think about what he was doing for so long,
So quietly.
Oh,
No,
No,
Definitely not.
But Leo was interested.
It was the first thing that he'd been interested in since Sasha left.
He started copying the videos and creating what he wanted to do.
He didn't tell Tooker what it was.
He just kept crocheting and crocheting and crocheting.
And what he was doing was growing and growing and growing,
Day after day,
Getting bigger and bigger.
And as he crocheted,
He felt himself going to this really peaceful,
Quiet place that made him feel good inside.
And while he was there,
He would think about Sasha,
And he decided that he wasn't going to be sad anymore,
Because that would ruin what they had.
Leo was going to get happy and move on.
And if he saw Sasha again,
That would be lovely.
But if he didn't,
That would be okay,
Too,
Because if he didn't,
Then it just wasn't meant to be.
It wasn't like it was a mistake,
Or she'd left him,
Or they didn't like each other.
That wasn't the case.
It was just that Sasha lived somewhere else,
And it was pretty impractical of him to fall in love with a dog that was going to leave him all the time.
So maybe even if Sasha did come back,
Leo decided that they'd be really good friends.
Maybe that way his heart wouldn't hurt so much when she left.
This all made him feel better.
He wasn't as sad.
And by the time he got to the end of his project,
Tucker was amazed.
Leo,
I can't believe it!
You're absolutely,
You're a natural at it,
Leo.
You're so good at crocheting.
Look what you made!
Leo was standing there in a white,
Fluffy,
Doggy,
Cardigan-like jumper thing.
His little legs were out at the front and the back,
But it kept him warm all around his belly and his chest and his heart.
And more importantly,
He called it his Sasha jacket.
It was warm and fluffy and soft,
And it was hugging him constantly.
A constant hug.
He felt secure and safe and warm inside.
He loved it.
And he loved his new hobby.
Who'd have thought Leo was a natural at crocheting?
How crazy is that?
But yes,
From that day forward,
Leo was over Sasha.
He'd always loved her.
Always hoped that she would visit and come back.
But he wasn't sad anymore.
Leo had moved on.
And that was a good thing.
Right?
The end.
Thank you.
