Studio Combines Yoga Practice With Shelter Cats to Help Them Find a Home

Photo Credit: Homeward Bound Pet Shelter

If you have a cat, you might have noticed he or she naturally tends to practice yoga, with all of that stretching and posing. Cats and yoga really are a natural fit. They’re flexible and there’s even a position, cat-cow, named after their arching backs. So, it may be no surprise that one studio combined their yoga practice with shelter cats.

Homeward Bound, a no-kill pet shelter in Decatur, Illinois, teamed up with a local studio, Yoga at Connie’s, to host a class that features adoptable cats. Students are encouraged to practice their poses and mingle freely with the furry felines, in hopes of finding them and others the forever homes they deserve.

Breezy, a black and white cat from Homeward Bound pet shelter, pictured above, really made herself at home on a mat at Yoga at Connie’s studio, touching noses with practitioners and placing herself in positions only a cat, or a yogi, could accomplish. There were six adoptable cats from the shelter who were welcomed into the studio, wandering among the students and joining in on the activity.

Photo Credit:Homeward Bound Pet Shelter

Photo Credit: Homeward Bound Pet Shelter

Throughout the class, the kitties snuggled up with the students, enjoyed lots of belly rubs and even tried out a few poses of their own.

The yoga studio is located in a rural area where people drop off a lot of cats, so when Homeward Bound volunteer Jeanette Skaluba, who does social media promotions and videos for the shelter asked owner Connie Pease about doing a cat yoga class in June, Pease happily agreed, noting, “I think it’s perfect.”

Instead of a class fee, the shelter also took cash and supply donations, including large basket of food and other supplies. The event raised more than $500 including two sponsors. Pease hopes they can continue to team up, especially since there was more interest in the class than the studio could hold.