Joseph Pilates has a fascinating story.  He grew up in Germany in the late 1880s and was frequently absent from school due to illness which meant he spent hours outdoors playing and watching how animals behave.   This is where a lot of his inspirations came from and is why so many of our Pilates exercises today are based on animals and their movement.  There's the obvious one like cat, where we make an upward C-shape with our spine just like a cat does when it stretches.  This is great for lengthening the spine and working the core muscles.  The opposite to a flexed cat is an extended cat, which is also referred to as a cow or a camel!  Then there's the Cobra which we do lying on our front to extend the spine.  How about the Lizard or the Grasshopper?  The Seal is a fun exercise for balance as you roll forward and back on your back, clapping the soles of the feet together.  There's a downward dog (usually called a high V in Pilates) and we wag our tail like a dog in 4 point kneeling.   Do you know of any others? 

The photo of is my cat in the very relaxed rest position!!