← Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories
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- [00:01]
Thomas
Get Sleepy is a production of Slumber Studios and is made possible thanks to the generous support of our sponsors and Premium members. If you'd like to listen ad free and access weekly bonus episodes, extra long stories and our entire back catalogue, you can try out Premium free for seven days by following the link in the episode notes. Now a quick word from our sponsors. Tonight's episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. May is mental Health Awareness Month and we want to remind you that no matter what you're going through, you don't have to go it alone. And sometimes it's what we hear from others that can make all the difference. Whenever I notice myself fall into a bit of a slump, or if I'm struggling with anxiety, it feels so much better to be able to talk about it and get it out of my head. Whether that's with a loved one, a friend or a therapist. So take this Mental Health Awareness Month as an opportunity to check in with yourself and with those you love and trust. As the old saying goes, a problem shared is a problem halved. BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 6 million people globally. Getting started is easy and stress free. With their short questionnaire to match you with the right therapist, you don't have to be on this journey alone. Find support and have someone with you in therapy sign up and get 10% off@betterhelp.com getsleepy that's betterhelp.com get sleepy
- [01:55]
Prime Originals Announcer
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- [02:26]
Thomas
Welcome to Get Sleepy, where we listen, we relax, and we get sleepy. I'm your host, Thomas. Thank you so much for tuning in. It's been a while since we visited our cat friends, Augie and Meatball. If you're new to their stories, Auggie would like to impress upon you that she was there first and that Meatball was merely a recent addition to the family. And Meatball certainly wouldn't try to usurp her as queen of the household. He's enormously good natured and eager to please, two qualities that Auggie finds endlessly embarrassing. Tonight we'll find out what happens when Meatball gets a rare day of alone time. He's not particularly used to that and we'll all find that being the big cat of the house has its ups and downs. A huge thank you once again to Alicia, Stefan, and Simon, respectively, for the writing and narration of this series, which we know so many of you love and adore. Before we begin, let's unwind from the busyness of our days and spend some time moving our bodies and minds in the soothing direction of sleep. Just gently adjust your body in any way that may help you feel more comfortable. Or if things are just right as they are, then simply enjoy that cozy stillness. Allow your eyes to fall closed if you're yet to do so, and bring your attention to the breath. Feel the slow, steady movement of your breath as you relax more and more into this opportunity to rest. As you breathe, you may sense the subtle difference in temperature between the inhale and and exhale. The air moving in through your nostrils tends to be cooler, and once it's traveled around your body, the air you breathe back out is a little warmer. With this warmth in mind, as you continue to breathe, see if you can imagine a small block of ice in front of you. With each exhale of the breath, the warm air flows onto the ice and it slowly begins to melt. With every cycle of the breath, watch the way the ice melts a little more. The solid form of the ice block gradually softens and turns to liquid. In much the same way your body and mind soften with each breath out, you become more relaxed, less rigid, as if you too are melting into the warmth and coziness of your bed. You can continue to visualize the ice block melting with the warmth of your breath for as much time as you
- [07:20]
Simon
like,
- [07:23]
Thomas
perhaps until it has completely transformed to liquid water. Remember, my friends, your only concern right now is being totally relaxed. With that being said, it's time to hand over to Simon. As we return to our series about Augie and her family, this is where our story begins.
- [08:29]
Simon
The busy start to the morning was one of Meatball's favorite times of the day. He wasn't a big fan of the really early part, when the only noise was the pot gurgling in the kitchen. The house was very boring then. Unlike Auggie, who seemed fixated on rising with the sun, Meatball preferred to stay snuggly warm in the covers with the humans. There was plenty of room after all. He found he could stretch himself in just about any direction, and both of the people would make room for him. In fact, the man almost fell off the bed sometimes out of consideration for Meatball. To show his appreciation Meatball would sometimes sweep his tail across the man's face. Everyone seemed to like his soft fur after all. As soon as the people got out of bed, the real fun began. There were so many exciting things for a feline to do. He quite marvelled at the fact that Auggie seemed to have no interest. Meatball enjoyed meowing at the bathroom door while the humans were running the shower. Sometimes, to reassure the humans that he was still there, he would lie down and shove his meaty little paws under the crack in the door. When he was allowed access to the bathroom, he liked to sit in the tub and watch all the primping the humans were doing at their double vanity. The day got even better when the small people were up. Somehow Meatball always sensed when it was almost time for the big humans to wake them. He liked to sit at the door that belonged to the older child, waiting expectantly. Sometimes he tried to pull on the handle, but it never worked for him. It was some kind of people magic he couldn't crack. Once the portal had been opened, however, he always energetically squeezed himself through the gap, pushing his way into the darkness of the quiet space. Then he would make a circuit of the bedroom, hopping up on the child's bed and waiting for a hug and a head scratch. Without delay, as the older child rolled out of bed, he would run to the second child's room and repeat the performance. More hugs to be had, more cooing and attention from the small people. They were his best buddies. While children were dressing or being dressed, there was often an opportunity to go poking into the opening of a mysterious bedroom closet. Or sometimes Meatball could squeeze himself into an open sock drawer. These spaces were not always available, but this was one of the best times of the day to break into them. He thought himself very clever when he snuck inside one of these elusive nooks. Then, once the people went downstairs, Meatball's most important job was to patrol for dropped pieces of toast and sweet morsels of cereal. This activity did come with the considerable hazard of a child smearing jam on his clean orange fur, but it was a risk worth taking. Once the children were gone, no food whatsoever would be falling to the floor. Meatball knew that his window of opportunity was narrow. Auggie also took advantage of the children's mealtime, but she was very bold. Once in a while, with practiced skill, she would even snatch something tasty right off their plates. Meatball had tried this, but he was getting rather large and unwieldy, and he couldn't seem to manage the Stealth that seemed to come naturally to Auggie. For Meatball, the drawback to being a big, lovable orange lug, apparently, was a lack of subtlety. People always saw him coming. Most days, the children were eventually delivered to the yellow bus, where they disappeared for many hours. The adults, however, came and went. Sometimes they were sitting at the tables and desks, and other times they were cooking or tidying up. Once the house entered this quieter period of the day, Meatball would usually roam about to see where Auggie was. Often he'd find her looking out the front window or napping in a sunbeam in the living room. He supposed she needed more rest, since she took on the early morning burden of trying to wake up the people every day while he was still lolling about in their bed. All these household activities were fairly regular. Once in a while, however, something new and different would happen during the course of the morning. On what seemed like an otherwise ordinary day, the man brought up the container. That meant a cat was going in the car. Meatball had been in that container, and he had a very low opinion of both the confinement and the experiences at the other end of the automobile ride. He looked at Auggie with alarm, but she didn't see anything. She was already deep in her first nap of the morning, oblivious to the quiet motions of the human. Meatpaw laid his ears back and began to squash himself around the back corner of the sofa. It was an impossibly tight fit, but he was motivated. He wanted to be invisible. If a cat was going into that container, he did not want it to be him. But still, he did have some feelings of guilt as he watched the man swoop Auggie out of her cat bed and quickly deposit her inside the container. She was sleepy at first, and by the time she had spread her paws out to grab onto the outside of the opening, it was too late. Lickerty split. That little door was closed, and Auggie's haughty face peered out of it. Displaying a very ill temper, the man hoisted Auggie's carrier into the air and disappeared down the steps. Within moments, Meatball heard the garage door opening, followed by the rumbling sound of the car. Then the garage closed again, and the car disappeared into the distance. Meatball jumped up on the chair by the window, eager to see Auggie on the outside of the house, but the vehicle had already vanished around the corner. He stood there for a moment, leaning his paws on the nearby windowsill, wondering if the car might return. It did not. Meatball became aware of a great stillness in the house. The Children were away for the day. The man and the lady were both gone. That was not so unusual. But not having Auggie there was something entirely different. Granted, she was a cat of few words. Most of her strong opinions were generally communicated to him with disdainful looks or the sharp switch of her fluffy tail. But Meatball had grown quite used to her bossing him around. Hopping back to the floor, he noticed how audible his own steps sounded, even on the carpet. Squish, squish, squish. The emptiness was palpable. On the other hand, he mused, he had the run of the house. All of a sudden, he imagined the things he could do without being observed. Picking up his pace a bit, he walked over to the bubbling water bowl and began to loudly drink. He carelessly slopped water on the floor and caught droplets all over his poofy cheeks. Lap, lap, lap went his pink tongue. He listened to the noise with a bit of satisfaction. When he'd drunk as much as he could manage, he sat back on his hind legs and simply allowed the droplets on his whiskers to drip and fall on the hardwood. Had Auggie been there, she would have glared at him or even walked up and licked his face passive aggressively. She didn't like a messy display at the water bowl. After a moment, the water on Meatball's face was beginning to annoy even him, so he wiped it away with his paws and looked around the room. What should he do next? He wondered. He heard a bark outside and immediately trotted to the window, where he'd been a moment before. Auggie spent a lot of time each day monitoring the street. This was a non negotiable activity for her. Rain or shine, she always manned her post at the window. Sometimes he saw her glaring ominously at passing dogs. Other times he'd see her simply watching with half closed eyelids as nothing at all happened down on the sidewalk. At some point, Auggie always seemed to sense that the watching time was over and she would curl up in the chair or in her cat bed for a bath and a nap. This decision to end the watching time seemed entirely Auggie's whim. But there was an exception. On the rare occasion that anyone should be saucy enough to ring the doorbell, Augie would tear upstairs and hide under a bed as if hostile invaders had arrived. Meatball had no issue with the doorbell. He found visitors quite entertaining. When he was in luck, they even came inside to pat his head. With Auggie off on mysterious errands, the task of watching the street had clearly fallen to Meatball he realised in that moment that he was very important and sat in an alert position, taking in the view. It seemed like an interminably long time passed before anything happened at all. Finally, a dog walker came by with two canines. One was very big and the other was very small. Meatball tilted his head to the side, watching the dogs with fascination as they sniffed and pulled on their leads. Dragging the dog walker up the sidewalk, he placed his face at the window, almost hoping the doggies would look up and see him like the neighbour pets did from their nearby balconies. But the dogs were oblivious to his regal presence and soon disappeared from view. Meatball began to wonder how Auggie could do this job for such a long time. Every day it felt so thankless. Perhaps she had a secret inner life she was not sharing with him. Forsaking the window, somewhat guiltily, he decided to do something very naughty. He climbed right into Augie's bed. Now, it wasn't that he'd never crawled in her bed before. He'd been cuddling with her on her terms since she was a baby. But there was no question that it was her bed and that Meatball was the visitor. The family had gotten Meatball his own bed, but it held no allure for him. He preferred to be with Auggie, despite the fact that Auggie frequently appeared to prefer having her own space. But Auggie wasn't there, and nobody could stare him down. He plopped clumsily into the very middle of her soft bed and made himself at home. As he did, the comforting scent of orgie surrounded him and he felt soothed and protected. Deep down, he knew Auggie loved him, even though she was quite crabby at times. Conscientiously, he began bathing himself. He thought of all the parts of a bath that Auggie had taught him. Toe beans, tail, more tail, wash behind the ears, reach down and really try to get the neck and shoulder. Bathing really was so much work, but with Awgie in the house, it was compulsory. Untidy kitties were not allowed to share her bed. Having finished his bath, he felt very tired. He curled up with his tail over his nose and closed his eyes. All the little noises of the house swirled around him. The bubbling of the cat fountain, the air softly blowing from the vents, the almost imperceptible buzz of the lady's laptop on the table. The backdrop of the house was like a blanket that enveloped him in security, and he began to doze off. Meatball did have a delicious little nap, but he woke quite refreshed. A Short time later, he looked glumly around himself, alone in Auggie's bed, and decided to find something else to do. He rolled awkwardly off of the cushy pillow. Then, stretching himself very, very long, he stuck his behind in the air and lowered his chin to the ground. Fully reinvigorated, he made for the upstairs and steadily ascended the carpeted steps. Upon the landing, he made a delightful discovery. The empty plastic laundry basket was sitting there, just waiting to contain him. With a leap, he had plonked himself inside. It was very satisfying. After he had sat there for a moment, like a king, he laid down and rolled on his side, filling the entire bottom of the basket with his ever increasing orange largesse. Then, as any good cat would, he poked his paws through one of the holes as if to attack an imaginary foe on the other side. A feeling of excitement rose in him as he grabbed onto other holes in the basket, pulling himself slightly along the inside. If Auggie had been there and in an energetic mood, she might have ambled over and swatted at his paws from the outside. He would have heightened his attack on the little holes in the basket, and they would have had a rousing battle. Or, he admitted to himself, she might have been standoffish that day and simply stared at him while he poked at the air. But Meatball pulled his paws back into the basket and sat up again. It was more fun with a friend, he decided. He would come back and see if the basket was here when Auggie got home. Hopping out of the laundry basket, he noticed that the door to the linen closet was open slightly. This was highly unusual and had to be immediately investigated. Meatball stalked purposefully over to the tall, narrow door and stuck his nose in the dark crevice where it was ajar. He sniffed experimentally. The closet had a funny smell. It was like clean sheets, but also like shadows and dust. A little thrill went through him and he boldly shoved his bulky head inward, pushing the door open further. There wasn't much room to move in there, but he was able to squeeze himself onto the very bottom shelf inside. Turning around was the hardest part, because once he'd gotten in there, he was facing the back corner, which was a bit close. Awkwardly, he inched himself in a very slow circle with his nose dragging along the inside wall of the closet until it finally reached the front. Feeling very small and tidy and pleased with himself, he settled onto the items beneath him, which were encased in some sort of zippered plastic bag. If only Auggie could see him, he thought triumphantly. He couldn't remember a time when she had ever gotten into the forbidden linen closet. He tried to settle himself a little more comfortably, but the closet was square and he was, well, terribly round, and the plastic covered items crackled noisily beneath him whenever his weight shifted. All too soon the satisfaction of being the first feline explorer of the linen closet wore off. He wondered if he could stay there long enough for Auggie to return and see him, and then he realized that it would mean the humans would find him in their special closet and he would get a scolding. This did not appeal to Meatball, as he preferred to be lavished with hugs and pets, not stern voices. Reluctantly, he exited the closet, but as the collapsed, plastic encased items regained their natural shape behind him, he was happy to leave the door wide open. It was proof of his achievements. Strolling idly down the hall, he made his way into the big bedroom where the humans slept. There were some nice windows there. None of them were open right now due to the cold weather, but he and Auggie sometimes got to sit in the windowsill and watch the world from high above the backyard. Meatball stood on his hind legs and put his front paws on the windowsill, which allowed him to survey the scene. The yard, with its grass and trees was a wonderland of animal activity. In the front of the house there were mostly neighbours, dogs, and mail carriers to monitor, but in the back of the house a cat could see all different types of birds, and once in a long while a larger animal like a fox or even a deer might wander by. Today, however, Meatball was instantly fixated on a cheeky invader who had made its way onto the deck one floor below. The grey squirrel was one of many who taunted the dogs and cats of the neighbourhood, and there was rarely much that Awgie or Meatball could do about it. The squirrels were infuriatingly fast, easily flying from one deck to another and from nearby trees to railings and so on. Worse, whenever the humans were away, they came with their infernal nuts and buried them in the flower boxes, making a terrible mess as they did so. This time one of the worst offenders had clearly come to dig up his buried treasure. He stood in the barren flower box, which was empty for winter, and Doug madly twitching his tail. All the while Meatball stood like a statue. His natural instincts told him that he could not be noticed. An unbidden, a chittering ek ek ek ek. Sound squeaked quietly out of his mouth. His long tail switched below the windowsill, and as he stood there, alert that squirrel made a horrible mess of the entire flower box, took a single nut, a single nut and darted away with
- [35:49]
Thomas
it
- [35:51]
Simon
like an ice sculpture that was melting. Meatball's body slowly regained motion, slipping down to the floor from the windowsill. Feeling oddly vacant, as if he'd had an out of body experience, he took a moment to wash his paws and then hopped up onto the large bed to poke around. He wished Auggie had been there. She would have glared daggers at that naughty squirrel, he thought. Then he resolved to be far more terrifying in the future. Reaching the bed, however, he found his spirits immediately lifted. The humans had left a freshly folded pile of laundry. There it was, a stack of black and grey T shirts all in perfect squares, smelling clean and looking soft. Meatball sniffed it appreciatively and then stepped on it awkwardly, circling the T shirts several times. Then, with fair accuracy, he plopped his body down on top of the laundry pile, snuggling into it and wrapping his tail around the entire thing. Granted, his head was falling off the pile a little awkwardly, but he knew that he would soon forget about that. Tucking his nose under one of his paws, he soon closed his eyes, focusing on the faintly lingering warmth of the pile underneath his belly. Lovely. He stayed like that for what seemed an appropriate amount of time, but eventually he felt more awake again and he knew that his time on the laundry pile was over. Rising and arching his back into a lovely stretch, he sat and viewed the pile of T shirts, which were now coated in his orange fur. This was very good, he thought, because it was important to make sure the people were always thinking of him. Feeling successful and well rested, he dropped to the floor and went prancing down the hall to investigate the rooms of the small people. He went first into the room of the older one. There were a few pieces of clothing scattered on the floor, but he had no desire to sit on that type of laundry. Instead, he hopped up onto her desk chair and then to the surface of her small writing desk. She had some coloured pencils there, lying in a neat row. Meatball yielded to the irresistible urge to push them with his paw. They all moved together, making a small noise. He pushed them harder and they became disordered, with some slanting away from the others. Then, with an energetic pat, pat, pat, pat, he knocked them askew. Some rolled across the desk and others fell to the Looking around the desk, he spotted a pencil sharpener. Within moments, he had sent it over the edge. It hit the carpet below and broke open, spilling little shavings all over the area. Next to the desk. He pondered the mess with boredom. Doing these things without an audience was really not as fun as it should be, he thought. He hopped despondently to the ground again and strutted out of the room. As he sat on the landing, wondering what to do with himself, he heard a wonderful sound. The garage door was opening. Joyfully, he hippity hopped down the stairs and planted himself in the living room, facing the stairs to the walkout basement. As he did, he heard the rumble of the car entering and then the opening and closing of car doors as the garage closed once again. He sat still except for his tail, which was twitching back and forth expectantly. Finally, he heard the heavy steps of the man ascending the stairs, and lo and behold, his friend had returned. A container was placed on the floor, the door was opened and and a very grouchy Awgie emerged. She lumbered immediately to her bed, looking to be unharmed and in good health. But she had a very silly pink bow clipped lightly to the fur on the back of her neck, and her snowy white pantaloons were all trimmed and fluffy. Augie collapsed into the bed, where, Meatball thought guiltily, he had been napping not long before. Within moments she had managed to kick off the bow and was industriously bathing herself. It was clear she would be washing off any scent of foreign places host haste. The man took the offending container and retreated, leaving the two cats alone in the living room. Meatball kept his distance from Auggie, politely getting a quiet drink and taking care not to slosh water all over the place. But when Awgie was finally settled and had closed her eyes for a much needed nap, Meatball walked up to her bed on soft paws and laid down beside her. Gently he placed his head near enough that she would know he was there. Then, quietly, Meatball heard her offer him a very small and reassuring purr. All was well again. Sa. Satisfaction Sam. Sa. Sa. Sa. Sa. Sa. Sa. Sam.