Cat yoga

Many poses in yoga are inspired by animals - downward-facing dog, cat pose and so on. So you would think my feline friend, Missy, would have some appreciation of the forms and poses.

But no.

I do yoga occasionally and even more occasionally I practise in my living room at home (which is only just big enough). When I do this there is bound to be something involving lying parts of my body on the floor. Invariably, when I get to these horizontal positions, an inquisitive little moggy face appears at my side.

First she just sort of pads at my outstretched limbs. She might sniff it a little bit, maybe give it a little lick. But then she decides that this limb is a game/threat and wraps her little legs around it and attacks, trying to disembowel me with all her might.

This is really quite distracting when you are trying to remember to breath in as you move your arms up but out when they come down and to the side while removing tension from the rest of your body... sound at all familiar? I always find it a little entertaining that yoga teachers tell you to do something which is wholly unnatural and entirely weird and then tell you to think about your breathing? I'm just trying desperately not to fall over on my bum.

Or, perhaps even more embarassingly, fart audibly. Someone did that near the end of a silent yoga class recently. She laughed it off and apologised. I think I would die inside. I'd also be scared it would set off a whole string of other wind-related things. None of which should be scared with a calm, relaxing yoga class.

Moving back to Missy, I must confess to being a little jealous of her. Her downward-facing dog is so much better than mine and that thing where she lifts her leg up stretching like a tiny chimney to the ceiling, that's just really impressive. I suppose her joints just work a little differently.

Must go now, Lost is on and I don't want to miss bad boy Sawyer. Mmmmm