Namaste, kitties

MINSTER - Yogis at Just Breathe Health and Wellness on Wednesday night were welcomed with soothing music, atmospheric lighting and a colossal amount of kitty cuteness.

About 10 people attended the "Yoga with Kitties" fundraiser for St. Marys-based SART at the yoga studio. SART is a non-profit cat adoption service dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of strays in the community, according to its website.

Just Breathe owner Kimberly Oen said she was inspired to hold the event after hearing of SART's need for donations.

"Lots of yoga studios do yoga with puppies, yoga with goats," she said. "I know the organization is struggling with donations and struggling with people adopting kitties, so I thought I'd just hold a benefit for them."

A pet-lover and cat owner herself, Oen brought four of her kitties - youngsters Salem, Sampson, Sylvie and kitten Suki - to the studio for the yogis to stretch in style with.

Oen first got Sampson, Salem and Sylvie after she made a trip to the St. Marys veterinarian in October. She was originally there to pick up medicine for her two Bernese Mountain puppies when a worker told her someone had abandoned three kittens in a box outside.

"I was like 'Oh, if nobody wants them, I'll take them home,'" she said. "The next day, they called me and said they checked (the cats) out and asked if I still wanted them, and I said yes."

Suki, meanwhile, wandered into the family's life about a month ago after she popped up in Oen's garden, seemingly abandoned by her mother.

SART has been working since 2002 to rescue and rehabilitate strays in the community. The non-profit has rescued over 4,300 cats, of which 3,800 have been adopted, while the rest have lived their lives at SART, according to information provided by the organization. Over the past 19 years, SART has averaged 200 adoptions per year, according to its Facebook page.

Through shelter, outreach and a trap, neuter and return (TNR) program, SART has fixed over 7,000 cats, according to the non-profit.

Laura Hilleary, a SART volunteer by day and yogi during Wednesday night's event, said the shelter currently has 150 cats up for adoption.

According to SART, the kitties range in age from four months to seven years old. There are also 50 senior cats over eight years old up to 17 years old.

"A lot of them are older cats, and they've lived there for a long time," Hilleary said. "I think it's sad that the older they get, some people don't want to take in an older cat."

The TNR program is especially important, Hilleary said. Cats as young as four months old can have a litter of up to six kittens, and they can have up to three or four litters a year, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

Organizations such as SART in St. Marys and the Celina Cares: a TNR Cat Group participate in TNR, where feral and stray cats are caught, spayed or neutered and then released back to where they came.

Hilleary said the best way to help SART would be through monetary donations because the non-profit uses specific cat food and litter.

On Sunday, the SART Facebook page put out a call for donations, as the pandemic has led to more animals in need of help and less adoptions.

Donations can be made at sartohio.org/donate or mailed to PO Box 146, St. Marys, Ohio, 45885. To be considered for adoption, go to sartohio.org/adoption-form.