A Dreamy Day at the Wildlife Preserve

The episode opens with host Thomas announcing a new era for Get Sleepy: five episodes per week, Monday through Friday, with new stories on Monday and Wednesday, other narrators on Tuesday and Thursday, and encore episodes of all-time favorites on Friday. The shift is meant to offer listeners more consistency and comfort. Then, without fanfare, Thomas transitions into tonight's story—a listener-requested tale written by Lisha Stefan, about a wheelchair-accessible visit to a wildlife preserve on a warm, blue-sky day.

The Aviary and the Big Horn Sheep

The story follows you and a friend as you arrive at the preserve. You are in a wheelchair, and the day is just beginning to warm up. After scanning your passes and grabbing a map, you decide to make a clockwise loop of the park, starting with the aviary before crowds arrive. The aviary is built with double doors to keep the birds inside, and once you enter, the space opens up into what feels like a real wooded area, with an unobtrusive mesh ceiling overhead. You hear a stream tumbling over rocks and the layered songs of birds. Information plaques along the railing identify the inhabitants: lorikeets with long pointed tails and bright feathers, lovebirds with more subtle coloring, cockatiels with distinctive yellow heads, and budgies in yellow and black. You learn that large and small pa