Published 2006-01-30T00:00:00Z”/>

Gary Brune

With cats, dogs, white doves and a parrot in training, Gregory Popovich’s Comedy & Pet Theatre performed at Laxson Auditorium on Sunday.

Children of all ages came to see the show, sponsored by Chico Performances and the Chico State Kids Club.

Grant Gunther, 7, came to see the dogs, while his great-grandfather Ken Edson, 70, attended to see the birds.

The all-Russian troupe told a story based on Popovich’s childhood and career with the Great Moscow State Circus.

Since moving to the United States, Popovich, a fourth-generation circus performer, worked with Ringling Brothers, the Barnum and Bailey circus and the Circus Circus Hotel. The response to a kitten Popovich introduced into his Circus Circus act prompted him to start the Pet Theatre.

Except for the doves, all the animals were recovered from shelters in Las Vegas, Nev., where Popovich is based. He has 14 cats and 12 dogs in the troupe and said that most of the dogs are mixed-breed.

Popovich performed his specialty, juggling, to create the character of a talented poor soul whose foil is the ringmaster in a play who keeps chasing the sad clown off the stage.

“I liked when the juggler had the white dog on his head,” said Sonia Hitchcock, 7.

A black cat kept slinking across the stage. A big dog walked a smaller corgi, and a cat rode on the back of a terrier that walked to stage left on his hind legs. Camille Mavis, 7, said she liked when one of the barked out the sum to 3+2.

“I liked when the dogs went to school,” she said.

The finale was all of the cats, which Popovich has raised from kittens, performing in their own circus. He said he watches the cats and looks for their natural habits when training cats.

One of the cats in the finale was there because she did nothing but did it well, Popovich said.

“I just do what they like to do,” Popovich said. “I just encourage them to do that in my show.”

Gary Brune can be reached at

<a href= “mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected]</a>