So I have completed my goal – I have blogged every day for 30 days. It’s actually been really interesting to sit down each day and think of something to write about – to watch my thoughts and focus on one particular thing and articulate how I feel about that thing. It’s another form of mindfulness and I’d like to be able to keep it up, although perhaps not daily! That’s been quite hard.

For my last post I’ll leave you with some photos.

Firstly the herbs I planted before Easter are beginning to grow (I hope to post more news on that later in the summer!)

And secondly, two fat kitty bums sitting on the sill.

Another month begins tomorrow, I hope the May weather in the UK is sunny and warm and I get to spend time outside. We’re due a good summer surely!

The latest craze from the US to hit our little island is Doga – dog yoga. There there is even a book about it!

The story in the link is a pretty good one, with the dogs doing yoga outside. Perhaps a bit odd, but I can see where they are coming from. But Doga was first introduced to me in a magazine article by one of my students. In this particular article the dogs were in the yoga studio with their owners being held whilst their owners did their yoga asana (what happens if your dog is a Great Dane I’m not sure!). None of the dogs looked particularly happy!

Of course, this conjured up all sorts of images in my mind. From my experiences with mum and baby yoga, once one baby starts crying they all start crying — what would happen when one dog started barking? And if I was teaching in my home studio I can’t imagine the cats would be very happy about the smell of dog in their home!

Whilst I enjoy my kitties winding in and out of my legs during my own practice, I really don’t think I’m ready to invite animals to my yoga classes!

After talking about different ways women utilise the “mother” phase of their lives, Andy reminded me that another way of “mothering” (and fathering I guess on his part) is the great privelege of an animal deigning to live with you.

I have had cats since I was 7 years old although in many ways I am a dog person . Cats are easier for little kids to look after and through university and my early 20s of moving around and being out at work all day, having a cat made much more sense. These days whilst I am in the position to and would love to have a dog, I cannot guarantee that I will be well enough to give it the exercise it needs.

Not that my two furry children are in any way second best. They are without doubt two of the most awesome cats I have ever known. And Himself loves them as well. In many ways they are our surrogate children (having decided long ago we did not want children of our own), and I don’t care if I bore people to death talking about them.

Our 18-month old girl, Aurora, is the black and white one. She is part British Short Hair and came from a rescue shelter when she was 10 months. She adores Andy but took a while to trust me.

Johnny Park (JP) is the tabby and white one. He’s just a common or garden alley cat, one of a litter of three that we got from a colleague of Andy’s. He’s 9 months old now and a complete menace who eats us out of house and home. He adores me and follows me everywhere, even gets under the duvet with me and scratches and mews pitifully when I’m in the bathroom with the door shut. Sigh…
And yes, they are both named after Foo Fighters’ songs!