Several cats, by way of sniffs and head bumps, investigated a group of humans acting remarkably catlike during a recent afternoon in Redmond.

“Inhale, up on your toes, exhale all of your air,” said yoga instructor Jaimie Hamman. Nearly 20 participants, spread neatly on mats, followed suit. Several cats, which meandered through, however, paid no mind to the yoga cues. They preferred to stretch and recline wherever coziest — preferably within arm’s reach of a grinning yogi.

“Hi kitty, kitty!” one participant said, giving a tabby cat’s head a good scratch while assuming a complicated yoga position.

Such distractions attracted these flexible feline lovers to BrightSide Animal Center in Redmond for the second installment in a cat yoga class called NaMEOWste. The sessions have been held Sunday afternoons when the animal shelter is otherwise closed. Right now, the class is in the trial phase, so there’s no ongoing schedule, however, two more classes are scheduled for September and October.

Yoga’s health benefits are well-documented. The practice, which originates from ancient India, has been shown to lower blood pressure, strengthen a person’s core and foster positive feelings about a person’s body, according to Harvard Medical School. Other studies demonstrate how cats can also lower blood pressure and stress levels.

But tell that to this room of cat-loving yogis.

Two black cats with long hair and white booties and whiskers patrolled the yoga class. One of the cats, Wizard, a green-eyed, middle-aged male, was brought in as a stray. Skunkie, a 12-year-old male, looks nearly identical and has a similar story.

Wizard sashayed to Paige Hirata, 18. He curled between the Redmond resident’s legs when she changed positions. Hirata laughed silently while Wizard settled in.

“Now bend your knees and walk — or pounce — to the top of your mat,” Hamman told the class.

Erica Psaltis, BrightSide’s event director and volunteer coordinator, helped organize the cat yoga clinic. She whispered some of the felines’ back stories.

“Skunkie has really beautiful eyes and some white hairs between them, like a skunk,” Psaltis said. Throughout the session, Psaltis deposited — and redeposited — cats among the attendees.

“A lot of the cats come out and just land on you,” said Hamman, who considers cats inherent yogis.

“Just watch a cat wake up. They immediately go into downward dog, they stretch. My cat will get onto his back, legs out and just keeps stretching. I watch and be like, ‘I want to do that. I’ll do my yoga now.’”

BrightSide spays or neuters each feline it receives after holding them for five days so an owner can claim them. BrightSide is a “high save” shelter, which means while it has a staff veterinarian who can euthanize animals with quality-of-life issues; it doesn’t kill to create more space, Psaltis said. BrightSide relies entirely on donations to operate the nonprofit. It found homes for 96 percent of cats — and 98 percent of dogs — last year, according to the organization. Presently, BrightSide has a population of 81 cats, 11 of which are adoptable kittens, and nine more that are still too young.

That’s a sliver of the 3.2 million felines that wind up in rescue shelters throughout the country, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Events like cat yoga help bring people into BrightSide, Psaltis said. At the first NaMEOWste class, which saw nearly 20 people, only one participant had been to the animal center before. The point of cat yoga isn’t mastering difficult positions, but putting yogis in positions to meet cats they might fall in love with and take home, Psaltis said.

One 18-year-old cat was just so lucky. Named Spot, the elderly male cat mingled with yogis as they trickled in yet retreated when he became overwhelmed. However, Christina Withers noticed the gray-and-white tabby and his golden eyes. The cat was originally surrendered in 2008. After being adopted, Spot was returned in 2013. He’s since lost more than half his body weight.

“It’s really nice someone wanted to take Spot in. He’s really thin,” she said, describing how his weight has shrunk from 18 to 7 pounds in 5 years. Conditions like hypothyroidism and a heart murmur complicate Spot’s health, although he has a good appetite. His new owner has cared for elderly cats before.

“She knows what she’s getting into, and that he could pass away soon,” Psaltis said. “She just wants to give him a nice place to live out his life.”

During the most recent cat yoga session, a ginger tabby with a stub for a tail emerged from an open filing cabinet where he had been napping. Ruger, 3, took a shining to Ally Clark and her daughter, Tegan Clark, 8, both from Redmond.

“The fact that Ruger came out for yoga and was getting all up in people’s faces and being a part of it — we were all really surprised,” Psaltis said, adding that Ruger’s previous owners brought him in when they became homeless. “I told a (longtime) volunteer about it, and she said I must be talking about a different cat.”

Furry philanthropy

NaMEOWste came about when Hamman visited BrightSide and floated the idea of cat yoga by Psaltis. Hamman explained how she has taught yoga at Namaspa Yoga & Massage in Redmond since February 2017 and loves advocating for feline welfare. Psaltis was stunned.

“I was like, ‘Are you reading my mind?’ I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone here,” she said, adding that she came up with “NaMEOWste” — a riff on the Hindu greeting “namaste.” “It was kismet.”

When teaching NaMEOWste, Hamman emphasizes interacting with the cats. If a cat warms to you, she wants you to enjoy a cuddle.

Melissa Baker, 50, attended NaMEOWste for the second time. She wore cat-themed earrings, tights and a tank top. She owns three cats, one of which, Ivan, is a longhair black cat, she adopted from BrightSide. All three cats like to “do yoga” with her at home. Baker, who practices four times a week, had already done a yoga session at home before attending NaMOEWste.

“I had a cat lie on me for 15 minutes,” she said. “We took a little snooze together. You just got to lie there.”

Hamman knows the feeling. She’s happy to share her love of yoga and cats with others.

“Dreams do come true,” Hamman said with a laugh. She keeps two cats at home and fosters BrightSide kittens, who crawl all over when she’s stretching. “I wanted to share this. I found out on YouTube that other people are doing it. I thought, ‘Well, if they can do it, then I can do it, too.’ My passion has always been taking care of cats and connecting them to the human world.”

Melanie Hirata attended NaMEOWste in its first installment. This time she brought her daughter, Paige, who’s more into weightlifting but decided to give yoga a shot, she said.

Melanie lives by yoga. In four years, she lost 120 pounds. Daily yoga was the catalyst. Daily yoga in the company of cats is doubly rewarding, she said.

“It’s really therapeutic,” Hirata said.

“We’re used to it. My cats are brats. They’ll want to sit under your legs and sit where your tush was literally two seconds ago. So (NaMOEWste) is kind of like being at home. We can’t foster or adopt any more cats because we already have a packed house. So this is our way to reach out to the community and give back. We feel like we’re a part of BrightSide, but we don’t have to bring every cat home.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7816, pmadsen@bendbulletin.com