Next to forgetting your dog’s birthday, one...

Next to forgetting your dog’s birthday, one of the most insulting things you can do is throw the mutt a dull birthday party.

So leave it to an expert, Rosanne Marcus of Encino. She charges $200, plus $6.50 per canine guest, to throw birthday bashes for pooches in her back yard.

“People love to have parties, and the people that have these parties are real animal lovers,” Marcus said. “Otherwise, they would think it was the stupidest thing they ever heard of.”

She greets the four-legged guests with doggie treats and party hats and directs them to their spots, marked with paw prints, on a long sheet of butcher paper.

Marcus, who calls her business, “The Party Animals,” decorates the back yard according to the personality of the client hound--once she did it up in the birthday dog’s alleged favorite color (turquoise).

Occasionally, some guests, like a schnauzer named Schultzie, act up.

“I had all these people coming up and saying, ‘This dog peed on me,’ ” Marcus recalled.

Bad Schultzie!

Controversial football star Eric Dickerson, who left the Rams for Indianapolis after a contract squabble, lost some more fans the other day when he failed to show for a scheduled “inspirational” talk at Manual Arts High.

“We had an auditorium full of kids,” said Sharon Dewees, a vice principal. “It was really a disappointment.”

Robert Barner, also a vice principal, said that Dickerson’s agent, Randy Peskin, later said that he meant to notify the school but was “too busy.”

Peskin told The Times that he made a mistake and would “have no problem about contacting the principal and making an offer to him if he’d still like a presentation.”

South Pasadena displays one of the more cautious civic welcome signs you’ll find (see photo). The billboard refers to a preservation group’s contention that several Craftsman and Mediterranean revival-style homes would be lost if the Long Beach Freeway is ever extended through South Pasadena.

The question posed by the Santa Clarita City Council to the area’s hairdressers was: “Can we talk?”

Sure enough, 50 beauticians showed up at City Hall to get a free lunch and reveal what’s on their clients’ minds. “Everyone talks to their beauty professionals,” Mayor Carl Boyer explained.

Assistant City Manager Ken Puhlskamp walked about the council chambers with a microphone, explaining: “We’re going to orchestrate this somewhat like the Phil Donahue show.”

Among the disclosures at the unprecedented outreach session: The city’s lack of recreational facilities. Said manicurist Beverly Meeks: “You can only bowl so much.”

miscelLAny:

In the early days of the movie industry, the Hollywood Hotel posted a sign that said: “No dogs or actors.”