Me and my Calico Girlfriend (happy 10th to Marianne)

In October of 2000, I was notified that our Max was having to find new homes for 2 of his cats--one, a 5year old female, one a 2 yr old male.
I was looking to get a cat. I made a date to come look, and he sort of set me up by saying "you'll probably end up with the male, because he's really friendly. The female, 'Friday' is really shy and you may not even get to see her."
Au contraire.
When I first set foot into the apartment, what was I greeted by (after Max), but the most beautiful calico I'd ever seen, who came running out and began rubbing against my legs.
"Wow, she never does that to strangers", said Max.
"I'll take her" said I.

Well, 5 years, and one name change (sorry max) later, the rechristianed "Marianne" (named after the Leonard Cohen song "So Long, Marianne" and after the younger, foxier Marianne Faithfull) is still with me--though now she's sharing the apartment with Andrea's cat "Jack" (or Mr. J).
Her vet records say her date of birth is 7/95. So we just gave her July 1.
And though I've been telling people that she's "like7 or 8", I was surpised to see that today she's actually 10!! Damn. She acts like she's 3.