Cat Yoga: Meowga is Trending

By Yoga Journal

The latest yoga trend? Combine the cuteness of cats crawling on your mat with the feel-good factor of your favorite yoga class, and you've got Meowga.

You know those adorable cat videos on YouTube that you still watch for an instant pick-me-up? Combine that cuteness with the feel-good factor of your favorite yoga class and you've got Meowga, the latest studio trend in which shelter cats are brought to yoga classes with the goal of placing the kitties in happy homes. "The point is to give cats a chance to show their personalities outside of the shelter," says Jeanette Skaluba, a yoga practitioner and volunteer at Homeward Bound Pet Shelter, in Decatur, Illinois, who started the trend after her YouTube video of felines doing yoga with students got nearly 250,000 hits last year. "The cats paw their way onto yogis' mats, climb on their backs, and even sit on practitioners' laps, which cat lovers find endearing--oftentimes so much that they can't resist taking a cat home." Yoga-for-cats classes are starting to turn up on studio schedules around the country. To find or host one near you, visit yoga4cats.com.