Are you ready to meditate with Kari?
Climb up into your bed and make sure that you're super,
Super comfortable.
Check that everything is just right in your room.
The lights are just right.
You're wearing your cozy,
Comfy pajamas.
And all is well in the world.
So that you can let go of your body and hopefully relax completely.
And that way maybe you'll fall to sleep as you listen to the story.
Heidi,
Cherry and Veya had gone over to Tucker and Leo's house.
It was first thing in the morning.
It was a really,
Really hot day where they lived.
Cherry said,
OMG Tucker,
OMG,
I just need you to go on the back garden right now,
Right now and get your stone,
Get your stone and like make us humans because I have an idea.
I think we should all go to the beach because it's like a beach day.
It's so warm outside.
I'm like sweating my bits and bobs off.
It's like my paws are sweating off,
My tail is sweating off,
My ears are sweating off.
I'm so sweaty.
And you know what?
You know what?
Do you know what?
That's an absolute liberty.
That's not fair at all in this entire world is this,
Right?
I just found out the other day from one of my friends,
Well,
Well,
Heidi,
Well,
Well,
It was one of Heidi's friends,
But that doesn't matter.
We were in the library,
Right?
And we were talking and we were all discussing this book.
We weren't supposed to be discussing the book because we were in the library and I was trying to do my whispering voice and I was talking like this and I was doing it so good and I said,
You know what?
You know what?
You know what?
It's been so warm and like,
And Heidi's friend said,
Yeah,
I know.
You know what would be really nice?
And I said,
What,
What?
She said,
If we could do like a cat beach and I said,
Cat beach?
And she said,
Yeah,
A cat beach.
And I said,
A cat beach?
Is there such a thing as cat beaches?
Because I was trying to whisper really,
Really good like this.
Anyway,
I don't know why I'm whispering now,
Silly me.
So yeah,
I said to her,
Is there,
Is there such a thing as a cat beach?
And she said,
Um,
No,
I don't think there is,
But it'd be nice if there were a cat beach because there's dog beaches.
And I said,
OMG,
No way.
No way,
Jose.
You're telling me that there's a discrimination going on between animals.
There's a,
There's a dog beach where dogs actually go.
Is that real or are you just pulling my leg?
And that's when Heidi's friend said it were real,
Didn't she,
Heidi?
Heidi said,
Yep,
She said it were real.
Tucker said,
Oh yes,
There's doggy beaches.
There's definitely doggy beaches,
But I'm not allowed to go to a doggy beach.
I went to a doggy beach one time with Leo,
Didn't I,
Leo?
Leo went,
Oh yeah,
You did.
Leo was remembering exactly what happened at the doggy beach.
And I got in trouble so many times.
I was trying to eat all the puppies.
I was trying to eat the little puppies.
I was attacking the bigger puppies because they were growling at me.
And I was like,
Hey,
Who do you think you're growling at?
Let's,
Let's,
Let's,
Let's,
Let's,
Let's,
Let's fight it out right now.
I just wanted to fight everybody.
It was very,
Very bad.
Mommy was so upset.
She never,
Ever took me to the doggy beach ever again because I was so embarrassing.
She said,
You were so embarrassing,
Tucker.
That's what she said to me in the car.
You were such a bad boy,
Tucker.
And I was like,
Oh no.
And all my,
My tail went down and my ears got all floppy and my face got sad.
And mommy said,
I'm sorry,
Tucker.
And I said,
It's okay,
Mommy.
I was a bad boy.
And mommy said,
But you were a bad boy,
Tucker.
You were biting,
Trying to bite everything that moved.
And you're supposed to not do that on a doggy beach.
Mommy said,
You're supposed to just play and have fun with the other puppies.
And you're supposed to,
You're supposed to be friendly.
I wasn't being friendly at all,
Was I,
Leo?
Leo said,
Uh-uh.
No,
You weren't.
We got in trouble.
And yes,
We never got back to the dog beach.
So dog beaches aren't cracked up to be all that they're cracked up to be.
Cherry.
Cherry said,
But that's not the point.
That's not the point at all.
The point is there's not a cat beach.
Discrimination.
I am going to go to the government and I'm going to,
In fact,
In fact,
I'm going to write a letter.
Well,
I'm going to get Heidi to write a letter.
Is that okay,
Heidi?
Heidi said,
Oh,
Oh,
I'm writing a letter,
Am I?
Cherry said,
Yeah,
You're writing a letter.
You're the brains in this bunch.
Yeah,
You're going to write a letter to the government and you're going to complain about not having a cat beach here where we live.
But there's a dog beach.
It's just not cool.
Fayo said,
But I think you should just let it go,
Cherry,
Because like you said,
It's a nice day and Tucker has his stone and we could maybe be humans if Tucker's okay with it.
And when we're humans,
We can go to the beach.
We could go to the dog beach.
We could go to a regular beach.
We could go to,
Oh,
We could go to Coronado Beach.
We could go to Suami Beach.
We could go to the beaches at Encinita.
We could go to the cliffs.
We could go to Seal Beach.
We could go to so many different beaches.
Cherry said,
OMG,
You're right,
You're right,
Good point.
Tucker,
Get your tush outside.
Go get your stone.
Let's get to the beach,
Shall we?
Tucker didn't ask any questions.
He was on it.
He went bounding through the dog door,
Got outside,
Dug his stone up from underneath the Buddha statue,
Lifted it up to the bright,
Bright,
Shiny,
Bright golden sun and said,
Come on,
My lovely lady.
Come on,
My angel.
Where are you?
Tucker's stone went white and then the veins,
The golden veins,
Started to shine really,
Really bright in the sunlight.
And then his angel appeared,
Flapping her wings around as if she was hovering there in the sky above him.
She smiled down at Tucker.
You get one wish,
Just one wish.
Tucker said,
Oh,
My goodness gracious me,
My lovely angel.
It's so nice to see you.
Yes,
Well,
My wish today is to be humans as always,
Because we're going to go to the beach.
We're going to go to the beach and we're going to have so much fun.
So,
Yes,
Can me and my friends be humans,
Please?
Please,
Please,
Please,
Please,
Please.
By the time Tucker got back in his house,
He was already wearing his board shorts and a white T-shirt.
He had his white Vans on.
Leo was stood there in a pair of flip flops,
Some black shorts and a black T-shirt.
He also had some sunglasses pushed up on his head.
He was ready.
Heidi was wearing a purple T-shirt and she had a bright pink polka dot bikini underneath it and some pink flip flops.
Vea was wearing the cutest,
Frilliest little bathing suit.
It was white and it had gold frills across the middle of it.
So it looked like it had a tutu on it.
It was super,
Super cute.
And she had some gold pumps on and a gold sun hat.
It was like a big,
Floppy straw hat,
But it being sprayed gold.
She looked so suave.
She also had some sunglasses.
Cherry,
Cherry was wearing a swimming bathing suit.
You know,
Like one of those speedo type bathing suits.
It was bright red.
And she was also wearing it with some black shorts and some black Vans.
She also had some sunglasses.
They all looked super,
Super ready for the beach.
Tucker went upstairs and grabbed five towels,
So they all had a towel to lay on.
Vea said,
Please don't forget the sunscreen.
I am very,
Very fair-skinned and I need to make sure that I wear at least a factor 50 or possibly 100.
Tucker said,
Don't you worry,
I'm on it,
I've got some.
He came bounding down the stairs about five minutes later with a big beach bag with all the towels,
The sunscreen,
Some bottles of water and some protein bars for snacks.
And they left.
They went to the closest beach,
The beach that was about 10 minutes walk away.
They were really,
Really lucky that they had a beach that close.
It wasn't a dog beach,
It was a regular beach.
The first thing all of them did was take off their shoes and start to walk barefoot on the sand.
It was hot and soft,
And it squished between their human feet and their human toes.
OMG,
Said Cherry.
I just can't get over what it feels like to have feet sometimes.
Feels so nice to have toes.
I know we have like toes when we're cats,
But it's not the same.
Faye said,
I agree.
I really like my little feet.
She was looking down at her pale feet disappearing into the sand every time she stepped on it.
When they found a spot on the beach that they liked the look of that was far enough away from most people on the beach that was already there,
But it wasn't too far away that they were completely excluded and on their own.
They laid down the towels on the sand.
Tucker pulled out a couple of big blow up balls.
He passed one to Leo and he blew one up himself.
And they decided to play like volleyball or just like batting the ball to each other to pass on time.
That's the first thing they did when they got to the beach.
Of course,
They were all absolutely covered and smothered in sun cream.
Tucker was laughing at Cherry because she'd not rubbed it in properly on her face and she got a big streak of white sun cream across her forehead.
Stop laughing at me,
She said.
I can't help it,
You just look so cute.
Cherry liked that.
She liked the fact that Tucker thought she was cute sometimes.
After being there for about 40 minutes,
They were so hot.
They all needed to just dip in the ocean and get cooled down.
So that's what they did.
All five of them,
They just left their towels on the beach and started to walk down to the ocean.
The closer they got to the water,
The cooler the sand got underneath their feet.
And it felt firmer underneath their feet.
And then it got super,
Super wet and squishy.
And then the soft,
Wet,
Squishy,
Muddy sand started to really squelch between their toes.
The closer and closer and closer they got.
Until they eventually found themselves standing there,
Allowing the cool,
Almost freezing ocean to swim around their ankles and their feet.
It's freezing,
Said Cherry.
Tucker said,
Stop being such a wuss,
You get used to it.
Leo said,
It is cold.
Heidi said,
Yeah,
I agree.
Faye said,
Oh,
I don't think I'll be going in much further than this.
Cherry said,
All right,
Well,
I'm going to brave it a little bit more.
And then,
Of course,
Tucker thought that was a competition.
I'm going to brave it even more than you.
Oh,
No,
You're not,
Said Cherry.
Tucker said,
Yeah,
Watch me.
Tucker went up into his knees.
Cherry was wincing at how cold the water was.
But she was there,
All the way up to her knees,
Right next to him.
You're not beating me,
She said.
Tucker said,
You're not beating me.
Heidi looked at Leo and rolled her eyes as if to say,
Those two,
What a pair.
Faye barely noticed.
She was just looking for shells on the sands.
She was walking up and down,
Finding the prettiest shells.
At one point,
She found a sand dollar.
She was so,
So happy.
She'd never found a sand dollar before.
She was going to keep it forever and ever and ever.
She was going to put it in a special place in her bedroom.
Heidi and Leo watched as Tucker and Cherry got deeper and deeper into the ocean.
By now,
They were up to their hips.
Oh,
Said Cherry.
It's freezing.
Tucker said,
Oh,
It's not so bad.
He was trying to act really tough and cool.
Cherry knew it was bad.
It was cold.
Even though the day was super,
Super,
Super warm and the water felt nice,
It was taking some getting used to.
It was blooming freezing,
Man.
Then Tucker braved it and just dived forward,
Head under the water and everything.
And Cherry stood there going,
Oh,
Gosh,
OMG,
As if she had to do exactly the same thing just to keep up with him.
So that's what she did.
She dived forward into the water.
And when she was underneath the ocean water,
She practically screamed.
It was so cold.
But of course,
Tucker couldn't hear her.
And then she bobbed up out of the ocean and looked around.
She met eyes with Tucker and Tucker was smiling at her.
And she smiled back.
And then she said,
We did it.
And Tucker said,
Yeah,
We did.
We're awesome.
Cherry felt awesome.
She also felt really close to Tucker in that moment.
They were such good friends.
And she really liked him.
And the way that Tucker was looking at her told Cherry that Tucker liked her,
Too.
And they had a moment there in the ocean where time kind of stood still.
And they just stared at each other a little bit,
Their eyes not moving from one another's.
Quiet.
As if they were in a trance.
And then a big,
Giant wave came and splashed both of them right on the side of the face and knocked them absolutely flying.
Heidi,
Vaya,
And Leo saw it coming.
But Cherry and Tucker were still staring at each other.
Leo saw it coming.
But Cherry and Tucker had gone into their own little world.
They didn't hear them shouting,
Wave coming.
There's a wave coming.
When they both managed to flap around all over the bottom of the ocean and then stand back up after they'd been kicked out further down,
They started laughing.
Cherry's hair was stuck all over her face.
And her bathing suit had gone right up her bum.
She quickly picked her bathing suit out of her bum cheeks and then laughed even more.
And then Tucker laughed even more.
Tucker's hair was all flat to his head.
And it was like parted in the middle slightly.
And he looked super,
Super funny.
They just laughed at each other.
And then their moment was finished,
Obviously.
And they were back to being just Tucker and Cherry as friends.
They walked back over to Heidi and Vaya and Leo.
Heidi,
Vaya,
And Leo were laughing at them hysterically because they looked so bedraggled and funny.
They were covered in sand.
Their hair was crazy.
Then they walked back up the beach.
And they all laid down on the towels and sunbathed for a while and chatted and talked about life.
They really enjoyed being human,
Just being in a human body and being able to chat and talk and gossip and laugh and play and have fun.
It felt very different from when they were cats and dogs.
They really,
Really,
Really appreciated the fact that Tucker had that magical stone.
And they could be human whenever they wanted.
And today was the bestest beach day ever,
Being human on a beach.
Cherry was like,
I'm so glad I'm not a cat right now.
Heidi said,
Amen to that,
Sister.
We actually get to go to the beach.
Vaya said,
Yes.
How awesome is this?
The end.
