It Really Should Be Called Waking Cat
Posted by terrepruitt on August 24, 2016
You may have seen somewhere on the internet that I was going to teach yoga at San Jose’s cat adoption lounge, The Dancing Cat. I mentioned it in one of my posts. Well, some of you cat-like people (curious . . . get it?) might want to know how that went. Afterwards, I received a lot of questions from people who didn’t attend asking what it was like. Did the cats walk all over? Was it difficult because there were cats all over? What did the cats do? Well, first of all it was really fun. As you may have experienced, it is nice to gather with people with common interests. So it was nice to gather with people who like cats and who like yoga. We did gentle yoga for an hour and 15 minutes. It was nice.
Now to answer some questions. If you have or if you know cats, you are familiar that they all have routines. While they may vary slightly, I think they are all basically the same. Cats eat in the morning, then they nap the rest of the day. In some cases they might get up to wander or play for a moment, but then they are right back to the napping. It is so very important. While we were all arriving the cats were up and about. I am sure they were curious as to why all the furniture was being moved into a corner. Some of them might have been at The Dancing Cat to have experienced a yoga class there before, but some have not. The adoption lounge seems to have a revolving door when it comes to cats. And that is a good thing! They come, they are not there long, they get adopted, then there are new cats! So, not all of them have seen this before. So they were quiet active as we were arriving and setting up our mats. Many cats, of course, made themselves at home on the rolled out mats. I saw someone – I don’t remember who – chewing on and “back-footing” my mat.
There was time to take pictures and enjoy the cats. We learned who was who and who had got adopted. There were three still in residence that had been adopted and were going to their forever homes that day or the next!
Then just as we were getting ready to start the class, the cats were busy making their way to their napping spots. So most of them were lounging around on the various cushions, chairs, cubbies, and cat trees while we did our yoga. There was one cat who decided to be on my mat when we let out our lion roars. I must do a good lion because he fled in a hurry.
Since we were doing yoga in the presence of cats, I had decided to do all the “cat” poses I know. Of course we did CAT/cow, with the emphasis on CAT. We did lion, as I already mentioned, my roar scared one kitty. We did, Utthita Marjaryasana which is Extended CAT. Then we did CAT Tree, which is Vrksasana, but with your arms making the shape of whatever cat tree your cat has. 
The last cat pose I could think of was Sphinx, so we did that. Even though we did Downward Dog, out of respect for the felines, since we were in their domain, I said, “Downward You-know-what, the animal that should not be named.” Not that the cats were paying any attention at all. I actually think it should be called Waking Cat, because that is what they all do when they wake up.
Then the last pose we did in honor of the special creatures that are cats, was pigeon. I know it is not a “cat” pose as it doesn’t have cat in the name and it not really related to felines, but if you have a cat you may know where I took this pose. Perhaps you are familiar with cats and the noise they make when they are tracking/watching birds. But some people say, “Ick-ick-ick-ick”. So while we were doing pigeon we all sounded “Ick-ick-ick-ick.” This went over well, since all of the participants were cat owners. I think many of them have heard that sound – they did it well.
If you are ever in the area and have an hour to spare, I hope you will visit The Dancing Cat. I believe their plan is to be open through November 2016.
Are there any additional “cat” poses you can think of? What did I leave out?
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