Cinco came to us a few weeks after the death of another cat. Someone had left him in a box outside the vet clinic where I worked. He was a matted, unneutered, flea-ridden, orangish puffball who bore more than a passing resemblance to Animal from the Muppet Show. The first time we saw each other, it was love. He was the quintessential lap cat, and the lap he most wanted to be on was mine.
The first day I brought Cinco home to meet the rest of the brood (only 3 others at that time), he morphed into 'attack cat' and terrorized them in addition to making me doubt my sanity. That is until the CatMan's footsteps clumped onto the decking. Cinco ran to the door, flopped over and proceeded to clean himself, looking for all the world like he had been waiting oh-so-patiently to meet his competitor for my affections.As I've mentioned before, Cinco and the CatMan had an uneasy truce. Cinco's favorite mode of revenge on the CatMan was either chewing the edges of his paperback books, or if really upset, urinating on his clothes/backpacks/climbing gear. The CatMan's favorite nickname for Cinco was "Chewbookapeeboy." The only time the CatMan could do no wrong was after we had eaten dinner and his was the Lap of Choice.
Over the past two months, we have been noticing an onset of the "Dwindles", which culminated this weekend with Cinco no longer eating or purring. I will miss my boyfriend with his deep rumbling purr, old man sigh when he finally settled in to sleep, and even his ongoing insistence to be in my lap despite my protests (he usually wore me down anyway.)
Goodbye Mr. Cat. I love you.
Cinco - May 5, 1992 to March 3, 2008