Cinque is a dog.
He isn’t anyone’s pet or working dog.
He lives in Loreto Aprutino and is a regular sight walking along Piazza Garibaldi, Via Vittorio Veneto and Via Dei Normanni.
- Some say he can smell freshly cooked arrosticini from 5 km.
- Some say he can bark in 5 languages.
- Some say he saved 5 worn-out travellers stranded in a well-stocked bar.
The Loretese just know him as Cinque.
As he walks along his turf his eyes are pealed. He’s on the lookout for another victim, another mark.
The first time I met Cinque I was sitting outside Bar Centrale. He crept up silently to where I was sitting and before I knew what had happened I’d fed him all the food from my plate.
Once I’d run out of tasty snacks he moved on and found another customer, another sucker powerless to resist his charms!
Cinque has several techniques to gain your sympathy, to ensure your attention and to liberate your food:
- Looking at you with big sad eyes
- Placing a paw on your leg
- Resting his head on your thigh
- Gently stroking your arm
- Any combination of the above
In a moment of inspired genius I once saw him rest his head on one target’s lap, while gently pawing the arm of another.
He has an uncanny ability to recognise strangers, animal lovers and most importantly, Cinque lovers.
There are other town dogs, and they have their favourite patches and plays, but none come close to Cinque’s skill at working a target.
All these town dogs are cared for. They all have a designated human minder who checks in on them and makes sure they’re OK. Placid and lumbering, they all play the sad-eyed sympathy card with greater or lesser success.
But none are as successful as Cinque.
The locals both love him and are wary of him. They know that if they let their guard down he’ll happily relieve them of their hard earned porchetta.
Now and then they’ll shoo him away. But they know in their hearts he’ll be back.
They know in the long run there’ll be only one winner.
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