Feng Shui for Pets?

What’s better for Fido’s wellness—having his water bowl near the eastern or western wall of your house? How about your cat’s scratching post—will kitty be more inclined to use it if it’s in the living room or bedroom? Perhaps you used feng shui to organize your home when you first moved in, but did you ever consider that this Chinese philosophy relating spatial arrangement and orientation to energy flow can also benefit your pets? Why is it important to make your companion animals’ living quarters more feng shui–friendly, and what steps can you take to help your furry friends achieve a better balance of yin and yang? How can feng shui benefit Fido?

“A house with good feng shui means that you have a peaceful, clean, and harmonious home,” says Kathryn Weber, publisher of the Red Lotus Letter, an online newsletter about feng shui. “When your home is in good order, everyone is more healthy and content. This transfers to your pets’ health and well-being, too,” she says.

Dirce Johnson, a Longview, Washington-based certified practitioner of interior alignment, feng shui consultant, and animal rescuer, concurs. “Feng shui is even more important for animals than people,” she says. “If a living area is out of balance, people sense it and react negatively,” she says. “These reactions can run the gamut from mental issues, such as depression, anger, and anxiety, to physical ones, such as loss of sleep and illness. Animals are far more intuitive than we are—they survive by instinct. Consequently, an animal’s reaction to an imbalance in the environment is much worse than that of a human.”

Next: Basic ways to achieve balance