Meet Cinco, the St. Pete cat with a cult following
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Cinco with his caretaker, Samantha Winton, and Cinco checking out a bench outside Bandit Coffee Co. Photos: Courtesy of Samantha Winton and Sarah Weaver
He's charming. He's good with kids. And he is not allowed inside the neighborhood taco shop.
- He's Cinco, the kitty with a cult following in St. Petersburg's Grand Central District.
Why it matters: Petting a cat can heal you. It's science. And lucky for us, Cinco is a total ham for pets.
The big picture: It's hard to walk around St. Pete without running into a stray cat or two, but Cinco has a certain charisma that resonates with the masses.
- You can find him lounging between planter boxes on the patio of Casita Taqueria or flirting with customers at Bandit Coffee Co.'s outdoor tables.
Zoom in: Look at his collar and you'll realize he's not just any stray. Next to an Airtag is a blue, star-shaped nameplate engraved with a message:
- "My name is Cinco! Fixed, vaxxed and fed. Also, I'm not allowed inside Casita," it says, thanks to Cinco's attempts to bust into the taco shop's kitchen for some snacks.
Zoom out: Behind every great cat stands a great cat lady, as the saying goes. In Cinco's case, that's Samantha Winton, a Historic Kenwood resident to whom the Cat Distribution System has been kind.
- Kenwood, with its proximity to restaurants, has its share of free-roaming cats, Winton said.
- Soon after she moved to the neighborhood in 2014, she began finding them, or they began finding her — who could say? Cinco got his name because Winton thought he was the fifth to come into her life (but realized later he was the sixth).
Flashback: When "The Price is Right" host Bob Barker urged viewers to "help control the pet population. Have your pet spayed or neutered," Winton was listening.
State of spay: Utilizing Friends of Strays' Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return program, Winton has trapped and fixed nearly a dozen.
- First, there was Derpy, who was living under her house. Then came Tumtum, Colt and their mother, the aptly named Mommy. Munchie was next, followed by Cinco and his brother, Squirrel, and later, Taco.
- The most recent were siblings Spicy, Chili and Pepper, who were abandoned when a neighbor moved, Winton said.
The latest: Aside from Derpy, who was tragically run over by a car, the members of Winton's flock have either been adopted or still hang around her house with her lone shelter-adopted cat, Broccoli.
Cinco is among the group of regulars who stop by Winton's back porch twice a day for food, called by Winton's high-pitched, "Here, kitty, kitty!"
- Sometimes he'll join Winton inside and curl up on his favorite fuzzy cream-colored pillow.
Yes, but: It's not long before he's meowing at the back door, ready for his next Grand Central adventure.