Cedar Bend hosts successful cat yoga event

The Humane Society hosted an event last weekend on Saturday, May 2 for cat yoga at the Outreach and Education Center. There were many participants who showed up for the classes. 

Sarah Lindholm, the program and outreach coordinator for Cedar Bend Humane Society, said, “For the first class, we had 12 cats present. One of the cats chose to lay in his open crate most of the class, showing us he wasn’t enjoying the event as much as others, so staff took that cat back to the shelter. While there, staff swapped out a few kittens for him, making it so 14 cats were present in the second class. The cats ranged from just a couple months old, up to over a year old.”

The event was very enjoyable, Lindholm said. “Our first event was such a success. The cats had a blast running around, and the participants enjoyed every second of watching and playing with them. We made sure to have plenty of toys present so participants could play along with the cats.”

She said it is hard to know how many cats can be adopted. “Adoptions fluctuate quite a bit all throughout the year. Spring is when our intake numbers (amount of lost/injured/stray animals we take in) increase significantly, while our adoption numbers begin to drop. If you hear people mention ‘kitty season,’ it’s springtime when all the outdoor cats that aren’t spayed/neutered yet contribute to overpopulation. All while that is happening, our adoption rates drop because people are out of school and begin traveling more with trips or vacation.”

 Lindholm said “this event was made possible in collaboration with the UNI Alumni Association, hence the event title Cats for Cats. They reached out to see if an event like this would be possible and together, we were able to square away the details and make this happen. Their association coordinated with New Dawn Yoga to have one of their instructors lead the classes. Our biggest responsibility was providing the cat-proof safe space, equipment, and cats for the event.”

Lindholm was helping work as she said, “My job on the day of the event was to be on cat duty (ensuring they were all comfortable and happy), so, truthfully, I cannot accurately tell you how many yoga poses there were or what exactly they were. The instructor aimed to have the class sessions be around 45 minutes, rather than a normal full hour, and ensured everything was pretty beginner friendly. This gave the participants plenty of time to mingle with the cats afterward.”

The yoga poses were adjusted for the cats. Lindholm said “The instructor did a fantastic job of prefacing before transitioning into each new pose that participants should check their surrounding area for cats first. It was the instructor’s first time leading a cat yoga event as well, so she was getting the hang of modifying her usual routine herself.”

Lindholm said “each class had 20 tickets available, so 40 total. There were 38 people registered. We were incredibly happy with that turn out for our first ever event in our new building.”

A silly cat memory, Lindholm said, was “when the instructor first came into the space and was setting up, one kitten named Vilette immediately hopped onto her shoulders— it was hilarious. Otherwise, the majority of the class, the cats were constantly zooming around participants and ‘sneaking’ up on one another to play. Watching the cats kept a smile on everyone’s face.”

Lindholm said she hopes the event is soon. “We definitely plan on doing this event again. The community feedback was fantastic, the cats loved every second of it and we can’t wait to continue rolling out more services here with our new building.”

Lindholm’s favorite memory of the event she said was “that it got one of our kittens adopted. As a shelter, that’s our ultimate goal— getting pets into lifelong, loving homes. We hope that as we continue to do this, we see more and more get adopted.”

Lindholm said, “I’m certainly no yoga instructor and I’ve only had a few classes, so my answer probably doesn’t mean much haha, but I’d say my personal favorite yoga pose is probably child’s pose. It’s such a great stretch.”