Two-Way Petting Zoo (Bedtime Story)

We venture into the forest to create the world’s first Two-Way Petting Zoo, where not only do we get to pet the animals, but the animals pet us back! From sloths hitching rides, to frogs in custom gloves, and even Roger Robot getting showered in butterfly kisses, this wild idea becomes a buzzing success. By the end, everyone—human and animal alike—joins in on the fun, proving that the Two-Way Petting Zoo is the perfect place for hugs, high-fives, and endless joy! - Love, Mrs. Honeybee

Featuring: Mr. Honeybee, Melodybee, Roger Robot, and Harold

Transcript

Bedtime with Mrs.

Honeybee.

Today,

In the Honeybee neighborhood,

Melody Bee will be introducing us to a few of her animal friends.

I met the friendliest porcupine on my walk through the forest this morning.

Did you know porcupines can have up to 30,

000 pointy quills all over their back?

Yes!

That's a porcupine defense mechanism.

What's your defense mechanism,

Harold?

Oh,

Harold,

Very scary.

Hmm,

Let me.

.

.

Grrrr!

Grrrr!

Um,

Was that scary,

Mrs.

Honeybee?

Very scary.

Aww,

That was great,

Melody Bee.

You'll have to show the others when they get here.

I can't wait to meet all your animal friends today.

All you have to do is close your eyes,

Get cozy,

And listen to the sound of my voice.

Mrs.

Honeybee will be your guide.

Let's begin.

You are here walking through the forest to our house.

Tiny hummingbirds flutter to their spots,

Hidden behind single leaves.

You watch them settle in to their favorite branches.

Had you looked up briefly,

They would have been camouflaged behind the leaves,

And you wouldn't have noticed their shimmering green feathers that reflect the dappled sunshine that beams down through the trees.

Take a slow,

Deep breath in through your nose.

Feel your chest and your spirits lift.

Then,

Slowly,

Breathe all the way out through your mouth as you come upon our backyard gate.

You can see Melody Bee reaching up to unlatch the same gate you are walking up to.

She opens the gate just as you arrive.

Little Honeybee,

It's you!

I wish you were always on the other side when I opened this gate.

I'm heading back from where you came.

Want to come?

The sliding door opens,

And you hear Mr.

Honeybee and I come out into the backyard.

But for some reason,

Melody Bee isn't acknowledging us.

Instead,

She tries to rush you out the gate and back into the forest.

Come on,

Little Honeybee,

Let's go!

Come on,

There's nothing to see in the backyard anyways.

Hey,

My Little Honeybee,

Come say hi before you leave so fast.

Oh,

Goodness,

We were just leaving,

Mrs.

And Mr.

Honeybee.

That's really too bad.

We can't talk right now.

Sorry.

Harold,

We'll be back soon.

Wait,

Wait,

Wait.

Why are you rushing off?

No reason.

Why do you say that?

We're just heading out.

That way.

She's convinced herself that a two-way petting zoo is going to be the next big thing.

I heard about that from Jim down at the office.

Is that it,

Melody Bee?

It is a thing.

Well,

It's going to be a thing.

You watch.

Little Honeybee and I are going to make it happen right now.

Why don't you start the two-way petting zoo in the backyard and start with Harold?

Harold can be the one and only resident.

The grandness of the future that I'm imagining cannot possibly fit back here.

Tell us what you're imagining.

Maybe it is possible,

My dear.

Okay,

Melody Bee.

I'm all ears.

Well,

I'm so happy you asked.

Melody Bee proudly buzzes up onto an invisible soapbox and explains her idea for a two-way petting zoo,

A place that allows you to pet the animals and the animals to pet you.

She is convinced that the forest behind our house is teeming with creatures that the neighbors would love to get to know and vice versa.

Remember when we found the lemur in the woods?

Don't you mean the blue-eyed,

Winking raccoon monkey?

I named it that because lemur just doesn't capture the essence of that animal.

Anyways,

You prove the point of how much we need this two-way petting zoo.

I never knew what a lemur was,

But there was one right on the other side of this fence.

When I'm done,

Everyone,

Human and non-human,

Will know each other.

No,

Not just know each other.

We will all become more neighborly.

We will be changed as people and non-human people.

All right.

I'm convinced,

Melody Bee.

Me too.

Where do we even start?

In the forest,

Of course.

Melody Bee leads the way deep into the forest.

She buzzes just ahead of us,

Happily listing each animal that she's going to invite to the two-way petting zoo.

Melody Bee can flutter around the low-hanging branches and through the crowded tree trunks much easier than we can.

Mr.

Honey Bee holds up a small branch for us to pass under it,

And you spot tree roots that stick up from the ground,

Waiting to trip our toes when we're not looking.

Take another slow,

Deep breath in through your nose.

Feel the coolness of the fresh forest air coming in through your nose.

Then,

Slowly,

Breathe all the way out through your mouth and reach up to let a sloth hitch a ride on your shoulders.

A little fuzzy sloth reaches her three-toed paw down to meet your hand and slinks along your arm before snuggling into a piggyback ride.

There are two-toed sloths and three-toed sloths.

We pick up several from this part of the forest and keep trekking.

We meet monkeys,

Deer,

Two burrowing owls,

A herd of traveling pygmy goats that are excited to join us,

And even a rhinoceros who is the best of friends with the roaming spotless cow.

Every animal you can imagine has joined into a herd following behind us,

And Melody Bee hasn't forgotten about our aquatic friends either.

Rainbow fish,

Salamanders,

Friendly miniature sharks,

And a toothless crocodile swim alongside us in the Honey River.

Where are we going,

Melody Bee?

It's just right up ahead.

There's a spot where the river creates little tide pools.

Everyone at the Two-Way Penning Zoo can be reached there,

Whether they're on land or in water.

Just as we arrive to our destination,

We realize yet another wild creature has been following us.

Roger Robot uses a boulder as a ramp to launch up into the air with his off-road wheel and lands right next to us.

Are we spelunking again?

I woke up from a power cycle and I couldn't find anyone.

I tracked your location and.

.

.

How did you track our locations?

Oh,

Oh,

It's a.

.

.

It's a safety feature in case you,

You know,

Try and go spelunking without me.

Luckily,

My radar picked it up.

You forgot your headlamps at home.

I brought them.

Come on,

Let's go.

Before Roger can get too far away,

Melody Bee stops him in his tracks.

Roger,

We're not spelunking today,

Thank goodness.

But it would help if you visited the cave.

See if there are any bats that want to join us at the Two-Way Penning Zoo.

The what?

The Two-Way Penning Zoo.

They'll know what you talk about,

Don't worry.

Bats are quick.

And their wings are actually hands.

They have big thumbs at the top and four little fingers.

Yes,

Harold,

I brought your thumbs just in case.

I figured it would come up.

Roger Robot wheels over to the cave and returns with four bats hanging upside down from his arms.

Back at the spot where the tide pools form,

The bats replace Roger's arms with the shadiest tree branch they can find.

They line up under the dense treetops that nearly blot out the sun.

This will be where we pet the bats.

We give each animal a place to relax if they want to,

With their favorite foods and soft beds if they want to lay down.

Mr.

Honey Bee builds wooden stair platforms for the goats to climb.

They love to be up high and are expert climbers.

The neighbors who love to rock climb will naturally gravitate over here.

Once everything is set up,

You and I stroll over to the shore of the tide pool that's enjoying its own beam of sunlight.

Take a slow,

Deep breath in through your nose.

Soak in the sunshine and the excitement of being surrounded by friendly,

Fun-loving animals.

Then slowly breathe all the way out through your mouth and kneel down to the water to lightly wade your hand through the cool,

Refreshing water.

All the aquatic creatures join around you,

Called by the small wave of your hand wading back and forth.

The amphibians that can join you on the land crawl up onto the shore and shake off the water.

A bright yellow frog hops up to us.

When we reach out to pet it,

Roger Robot dives to stop us,

Wedging himself between us and the yellow frog.

Phew,

That was close.

That cute little guy is poisonous to human hands.

See,

This is why I track locations,

To ensure permanent safety and security for all of my favorite people.

Here,

Look,

I made frog gloves to protect your skin.

Now you can pet the poisonous frog.

Do you have gloves for the little frog too?

Of course I do.

This wouldn't be a two-way petting zoo without protective frog gloves.

Roger Robot tucks the little yellow frog's feet into the tiny little gloves,

And you hold out your hand for him to pet.

You lightly scratch his little head,

Right behind his eyes where his tiny feet can't reach.

You accidentally activate a froggy tickle spot that looks awfully familiar to Harold.

We tuck our frog gloves into special satchels and turn back to join the group.

In a very short time,

Our small group has quadrupled in size.

Animals and human neighbors all come out of their hiding places to get to know each other.

The owls use their wings to pet the hat right off of Mr.

Honeybee's head,

But a friendly monkey picks it up from the ground and gives it back.

Not before trying it on,

Though.

The rhino and the cow,

Who enjoy taking their time strolling through the forest,

Arrive just in time for you to pet.

You've never seen a rhino up close like this before,

So you approach slowly.

She nuzzles you into a big hug that the cow joins in on.

Melody Bee sees this from over by the bats and cannot resist a group hug.

More and more human and creature people join in for the group hug before going back to exploring the rest of the two-way petting zoo.

Roger Robot patrols the area to make sure everyone is having as much fun as possible.

He jumps his wheel up the wooden steps Mr.

Honeybee made for the goats and soon finds himself surrounded.

The goats are closing in on their new robot friend,

And before a single pet can be had,

Roger Robot snaps his fingers and transforms into an unpetable bright blue cloud.

He thinks he's won and that he evaded the two-way petting that he would much prefer to be a zero-way petting zoo.

That is,

Until a single white butterfly flutters up into his cloud and showers him with butterfly kisses,

Which is how butterflies pet at the petting zoo.

She flutters all around him and Roger Robot won't admit it,

But he loves the two-way petting zoo as much as we do.

After hugging each of the land creatures and the humans twice,

Melody Bee makes her way to the tide pools,

Intending to hug each of the aquatic creatures too.

Her plans are interrupted though,

Because she stumbles upon a certain someone who is very,

Very special to her.

Stunned into perfect stillness,

Melody Bee blinks her eyes several times to make sure they're not deceiving her.

A real-life platypus swims over to the tide pool,

Retracts its toe webbing,

And walks up onto the shore.

He leans in,

Duckbill first,

To give Melody Bee a big hug.

She hugs the platypus so tightly and for so long that we have to help him free so he can meet the other people.

Melody Bee reluctantly agrees to give the platypus some space,

But follows him around,

Asking question after question,

Wanting to know everything about him.

We make our way back to the center of it all,

With all kinds of animals hanging off our shoulders,

Hidden in our pockets,

And trying to be as close to us as possible.

You walk up holding a baby koala in your hands,

With a monkey-riding piggyback and an actual mini-pig trotting by your side.

Harold was walking next to the pig,

But he stopped along the way to compare thumbs with a lemur.

Roger has made friends with a band of foxes and a chameleon who can also transform himself pretty well.

They have races to see who can change colors faster.

Mr.

Honeybee is chatting with a dolphin,

An octopus,

An elephant,

A chinchilla,

And a crow who is perched on his shoulder.

They all love to build things and are discussing plans for expanding the grounds of the two-way petting zoo to accommodate even more visitors.

I hold out my hand for a brightly colored toucan to land on it.

There's an armadillo and a porcupine and a goose behind me.

We are finally able to reconvene,

Surrounded by all of our new friends in the middle of the forest.

I would have never guessed this would be a thing,

But everyone seems to love it.

Of course they do!

Who doesn't love a two-way petting zoo?

You pet the animals,

And the animals pet you back.

Always remember,

Mrs.

Honeybee believes in you.

You are special,

And you are loved.

I can't wait to see you again.

Reviews

I love it!!!!!!! My favorite animals are foxes!!!!! Note to Roger robot next time you give someone gloves to pet a poisonous frog maybe when they put the gloves on don’t say now you can pet the poisonous frog. How about now you can pet the frog. It kinda sounds weird when you say now you can pet the poisonous frog no offence ment. You don’t have
to read these emoji’s.🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊

Hey mrs.Honeybee! Im not sure if u remember me but but my names Aiza. It’s been so long since I’ve listened to your meditation
S like about 2 years or so. I just want to say how much u helped me when I was younger suffering with very bad anxiety. Thank you so much the meditation was GREAT! Keep doing what u do and Im sure you have helped many other kids overcome trauma and struggles. 💞🎀🤍 (oh yh avenda if you see this do u remeber me? It’s been 2years)

Noice ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌈🌌🌠🌑🌘🌗🌖🌕🌔🌓🌒🌑🪐🌁🌃🏙🌄🌄🌅🌆🌇🌉🏖🏜🏝🏞🗺love it I also love animals!!!!!!- Ella

Aw this was a great story for some reason when I saw the title I thought it meant the animals would be petting us back hehe❤️🐝 edit wait that’s what happened I apperantly fell asleep before that part

😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍. I love it 😍 thanks so much.

A friend texted me today that he wished his cat would pet him back and voilà this new story shows up! 😄 Loved it.

🐆🐖🐎🦓🦄🐴🐈🦌🐴🐯🦊🐈🐯🦝🦁🐴🐈🦌🐏🐷🐖🐴🦄🦌so so so so so so so so so good