Surprise 20th Birthday Bash Planned--for a Cat Called Mannix

Mannix will be honored on his 20th birthday, on May 1, with a surprise party at his Agoura home.

There will be cats, dogs, bunnies and people in attendance to help celebrate the longevity of this black, longhaired Siamese and Maine coon cat who was retrieved by the Wirth family in Santa Monica, where he was thrown from a moving car when he was about three months old.

Mannix did well as a member of the Wirth clan, which includes Sandi Wirth, her 25-year-old son Miles, and a couple of dogs, cats and some rabbits.

By the age of 11, Mannix became a star with the lead animal role in a little art film called “Lillith’s Summer.”

What got him the part, according to Sandi Wirth, a small-animal trainer, was Mannix’s natural but well-cultivated, deep-throated growl, which has been heard in many films and television programs, including a onetime appearance with Peter Jennings on the ABC evening news.

Wirth, until she started working with Mannix, had been almost exclusively a dog trainer.

“Dogs love to learn. They get all puffed up and proud about their accomplishments, so one day I asked myself, ‘Why should dogs have all the fun?’ ”

Now any fool knows that you don’t teach a cat tricks. A cat’s only occupation is training its master to respond to cat commands.

But Wirth didn’t know that, so she started teaching Mannix some basic tricks.

“You work with a cat’s own behavior, so when he would pounce on the paper I was reading, instead of shooing him off, I would say, ‘Good cat,’ and give him a pet. Pretty soon, he would do it on command,” she said.

Then, every time she would see a cat do something on television, she would teach it to Mannix, she says.

She adds that in the years since then, he has learned more than 100 tricks, which she calls behaviors, and that her success with Mannix led her to work with other cats in a group situation.

Since 1989, she has run something called a College for Cats.

You heard it here first, folks.

A College for Cats.

She usually holds one 10-week session in the fall and one in the spring, but this spring’s session was canceled by the Northridge earthquake.

The fall session will be held at the Voyager Hotel in Van Nuys and costs $175 for anyone who believes that cats will do anything you tell them to.

Wirth says she can, working with the owner, teach almost any cat to do a number of behaviors, such as a “high-five,” bat the glasses off, jump up or get down from a counter or roll over. She says the hardest command for most cats to learn is “stay.”

“It doesn’t matter if your cat is headed for the movies or you just want to give it something to do. It doesn’t matter if your cat learns two or 100 behaviors,” Wirth said. “What is important is that the owner and pet have fun and spend time together.”

At the end of the 10-week sessions, Wirth throws a graduation party at which all the cats wear caps and gowns.

In addition to the cat college, Wirth still runs training classes for dogs and their masters. In her current set of classes, she is teaching the humans and canines a dance to music from “A Chorus Line.”

That doesn’t interest Mannix, who hasn’t been told that he’s having a surprise party, but he can tell from all the excitement that something is up.

Wirth says that she is going to allow Mannix to wear his new Australian bush hat to the festivities and that there will be kitty treats all around.

Summer Community Activities

Are Booming in Calabasas

Greg Johnson, the city of Calabasas’ director of community services, is a former rock musician and Army chaplain’s assistant who holds a degree in recreation.

He’s also the toast of the town.

During his initial year in the city post, beginning in January, 1993, he and his staff were able to offer about 30 different activities, whereas this summer, there will be about 200, he says.

He says much of the credit goes to his staff, the City Council and the community.

Maybe, says Karyn Foley, the new mayor of Calabasas, but Greg’s the man.

“Everyone loves this guy. He is just a great gift to the community,” Foley said. “He’s open to suggestion. He’s organized and he has good ideas.”

The summer program, which Johnson expects to draw between 2,500 and 3,500 participants, includes several camps and a full range of programs for everyone from toddlers to adults.

He says the activities are not restricted to Calabasas residents but that the brochure for the summer program only goes to those in the area, so that is who usually signs up.

Johnson says several factors have contributed to the expanded activities, including support from the council and community. But he said one of the biggest boosts was the recent acquisition of the Calabasas Tennis and Swim Club, a previously privately owned property that had fallen into disrepair.

The city recently bought the land and structures, which include the championship tennis facility and Olympic-sized swimming pool overlooking Calabasas Lake, for about $1.8 million, which was discounted to $1.67 million for payment made in cash.

Johnson has been pleased with his initial accomplishment in getting the original 30 activities organized within a month of when he signed on in December, 1992, and says he is now in a state of something approaching shock at the popularity of the program he has put together.

“It’s like riding on the back of a gorilla,” he said, laughing. “The program is going off in all directions and keeps gathering strength as it goes.”

Overheard:

“Is it possible to change your real life for your horoscope?”

Woman in Northridge Hamburger Hamlet to lunch companion.