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Yoga teacher Cassandra O’Mara said the idea was sparked after she discovered a litter of kittens near her home.<\/p>\n
“I was lying awake in the nighttime wondering what extra I could do to help cats get homes and to educate people more about getting cats desexed,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms O’Mara researched kitten yoga, and reached out to the Ballarat Animal Shelter to work together on the event.<\/p>\n
She said the session led to adoption enquiries and added an extra layer of joy to the yoga experience.<\/p>\n
“There was lots of laughing, lots of smiles on faces, lots of ‘Oh, how cute’,” Ms O’Mara said.<\/p>\n
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Some of the kittens appeared to attempt the yoga moves themselves, she said.<\/p>\n
A City of Ballarat spokesperson said the event came about as a new way for the shelter to increase engagement with the community, which has been identified as a key goal in the council’s new domestic animal management plan.<\/p>\n
“The mission of the domestic animal management plan is to create a better life for all animals in our community, and this activity helps achieve that,” they said.<\/p>\n
“The event was extremely popular and was booked out shortly after it was initially promoted.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DOWNWARD dogs met curious kittens when yoga mats were rolled out for a feel-good fundraiser that blended mindfulness with animal welfare in Ballarat. Twenty kittens from the city’s animal shelter padded their way through a special session at Eastside Yoga last week, raising money and awareness for both human wellbeing and feline care. The event […]<\/p>\n