In 2018, Kate began teaching a charity yoga class for Manitowoc’s Lakeshore Humane Society called “Cats on Mats.” This special event was held once a month at the animal shelter and raised funds to directly support the animals housed there. Gathering in the visitation room, students would move through gentle stretches and yoga sequences while enjoying the company of some of LHS’s feline residents.

On New Year’s Day, 2019 a very special kitty was surrendered to the care of LHS. He was diagnosed with diabetes and required a new insulin regimen that his family wasn’t able to manage. After dedicated care from the tireless LHS staff, Scooter was finally healthy enough to participate in Cats on Mats classes in March.

Scooter loved yoga, especially when he had the opportunity to cuddle with as many people as possible. For three months he attended Cats on Mats classes, snuggling with each student in rotation for 5 minutes apiece, circling the class throughout the entirety of the session, and ending each class in Kate’s lap for savasana. Kate was finally able to bring him home for good in July 2019.

Caring for Scooter was a constant challenge. He always seemed to have some new ailment or a close call narrowly escaping death, but through it all he was just as friendly, snuggly, and vivacious as he could be. Ultimately diagnosed with acromegaly (giantism) in October 2020, he was 8 going on 80, but Scooter still found joy and silliness in each day. His favorite place to be was outside, chasing butterflies and chipmunks in the garden while Kate taught yoga in the backyard.

After spending every one of his nine lives living to the fullest, Scooter died of natural causes in September 2021. He undeniably left a mark on each person he met. Scooter taught us to get outside every day, find beauty and fun in everything, embrace strangers as new friends, and take each day one at a time, honoring your body and its ever-changing state. Above all, without concern for what came before or would come after, Scooter taught us to be fully present with those you love in every moment.

Scooter embodied the true meaning of yoga every day of his life. His legacy lives on in the name of this business.