Shoot My Cat, PleaseAmong the dozens of...

Shoot My Cat, Please

Among the dozens of 1990 calendars out on the market is one published by Recycled Paper Products called, naturally, “Cats,” which features portraits of the felines in lush, romantic settings. The cat-catching photographer, Koren Trygg of Studio City, specializes in shooting animals for greeting card covers.

“Ducks are by far the worst animals to work with,” she says. A line of greeting cards introduced last year called Wise Quacks (also by Recycled Paper Products) features her duck photos.

“You have to work really fast and shoot a lot of film, because they’re always moving,” she explains. “You’ve got no control, and they respond to nothing, like food or simple commands. And these were Hollywood ducks that I worked with! I mean, they came from an animal agency!” Complicating the problem of constant motion is the problem of constant elimination. The ducks soil the set frequently.

Trygg finds dogs the easiest animals to work with. “Dogs almost always respond to food, and they follow simple commands,” she says.

Straddling the middle ground are cats. “A lot of times they just turn their backs to you, because they know what you want. Some cats you can bribe with turkey, or you call their name, and when they look up you shoot them. But if they don’t respond to food, you know you’re through for the day,” Trygg says.

The photographer likes to use her friends’ and family’s cats along with her own. “The cat sets the pace. Sometimes you won’t get the shot that day, so you have to set up all over again another day.”

She has used one of her own cats as a model so many times, he’s even gotten fan mail.

Happy 105th Birthday

The first question you have to ask someone who just hit the big 105 is, “What is the secret to living a long life?”

Ureva Mann, who lives at the Fallbrook Retirement Center in Canoga Park and turned 105 Oct. 11, answers, “I always worked. I always had jobs. I always had something to do.”

To be fair, longevity runs in her family. She was the youngest child, and five of her six siblings lived into their 90s.

Nowadays, she says she can’t read or write or see very well, but she’s a veritable speed demon in her walker. “I walk like I do everything else: If I do it, I do it as quick as I can,” she says, adding, “I exercise a lot.” Other than being hard of hearing, her health is excellent.

She thinks the greatest invention she’s seen in her lifetime is the microwave oven.

What advice does she have for young people? “I don’t think they’d take it if I could give it. They’re all too independent nowadays,” she asserts.

Well, then, what about the shape the world’s in? Is it getting better or worse? “It hasn’t gotten any better, but I wouldn’t say it’s gotten any worse,” she waffles. The difference, she says, is that “people were very satisfied with the world when I was young. They didn’t all go around saying the world was in bad shape.”

Mann has lived in Southern California since 1952 and moved into the Fallbrook Retirement Center when she turned 100. She has one son, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

As for vices, hers are limited. “I started smoking cigarettes at 35, and I quit at 60. I never drank much. Wine is my hardest drink, and I don’t drink it often,” she says.

Mums in Bloom

The last week of October through November is prime time for blooming chrysanthemums, notes Mamoru Tashima, owner of Sunnyslope Mum Gardens in Lake View Terrace. “This is my busiest season,” says Tashima, whose wholesale/retail business has been in the San Fernando Valley for 34 years.

People tend to gravitate toward yellow mums. “Yellow is brighter than the bronze, reds, pinks and whites. Those aren’t real sharp colors, and they tend to fade in the background. But you get a bright yellow, and it stands out--you know it’s there,” he says.

If you are planting colors other than yellow, put them in a spot that people pass by at close range, rather than having to view them from afar, Tashima suggests.

Mums bloom on short days and warm nights. Some people make the mistake of planting them too close to street lights, so that the mums never get the requisite hours of darkness they require each night to bloom again the following year.

At-Home Dining

The formal sit-down dinner is coming back in style. It’s formal in that the good china is brought out, but it’s not formal in spirit. Instead it’s fun, relaxed and intimate.

“Because people are investing in homes, they want to use them--they prefer to stay there rather than go out,” says Shirley Mae Epps, china and crystal buyer for David Orgell, which has stores in Northridge and Sherman Oaks.

Other retailers point out that couples from the ages of 35 to 40 are becoming parents now, frequently for the first time, which is keeping them at home. “People are beginning to find that it’s much quieter and easier to entertain at home than to make all the arrangements to go out,” says Robert Lamont, executive vice president of David Orgell.

A mix-and-match look for table decor is popular with some couples. “They’ll still buy the regular five-piece place setting of an expensive pattern, but they might also buy extra salad plates in a different pattern. Or they bring in some accessories like sugar bowls, creamers or serving dishes in a different pattern to change the look of their table,” says Renee Singer, owner of Cristal Palais in Agoura Hills City Mall.

Couples are also beginning to buy additional patterns of china--with service for only two, four or six people--that’s different from their everyday china and their good china. “People in their late 20s, 30s or early 40s are doing this,” Lamont says. Rather than vary the table linens, these people may vary the china for smaller dinner parties.

“A more formal table setting keeps you at the table longer,” Epps notes. “In my house, we sit around the table for hours, and instead of moving to the living room for coffee, we drink it at the table and sit around talking, and then everyone goes home.”

Overheard

“I spent a lot of time earning these wrinkles. Why would I want to cover them up?”

--Woman in her 60s to

cosmetics rep in her 20s

at a Woodland Hills

department store