Terry Prone: He was just a pet cat but it was still painful to watch Dino slip away

Dino veered between affection for his sister, Specs, and impatience with her, the latter expressed in sudden bites

Dino was black with a little white Roman collar on him and one white whisker. That was sixteen years ago when he arrived. As he aged, he got more white whiskers. Also a split ear because of a fight with Invader Cat.

That he was named after Dean Martin testified to the black cat’s intrinsic cool. He was in charge right from kittenhood, a definitive cat, right down to the stalking. He would sit in front of my husband, tail curled around himself so he was a perfect fur statue, waiting for Tom to finish eating, looking at him with such concentrated intent, it would intimidate a man who wasn’t intimidated by much. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Tom would ask him. “You’ve been fed. Gimme a break, would you?” Dino would listen to him, never taking his green gaze off the prospect of eating his leftovers, and Tom would abandon hope and put his plate on the floor for feline devouring.

Dino was black with a little white Roman collar on him and one white whisker. That was sixteen years ago when he arrived. As he aged, he got more white whiskers. Also a split ear because of a fight with Invader Cat. Invader Cat is a slow learner who always hopes he’ll get away with invading our garden, and Dino was super-committed to evicting him. The battles between the two of them were spectacular.