u/Rck0025

While I posted about the loss of Domino previously, I thought I should post about her adopted sister Winnie!

Despite looking a little like a small Maine coon, she is actually 1/2 Manx, 1/2 mixed barn cat lol. Winnie is the only survivor of a liter of barn cats. She was initially adopted out, but was returned to my family shortly thereafter.

While visiting my folks from Austin, as a young kitten, Winnie would sneak into my room at night and sleep on my back. She would demand to be played with in those days, most notably chasing rags or whatever— as she chose most of the nights to sleep in a linen closet. As I was leaving after one visit, Winnie ran down the hall and threw herself at my feet and curling in and out of a ball and talking up a storm. I looked at my newly wed wife and said, I think she wants to go with us.
With us she went and cried at least one full hour after taking her with us.

Needless to say, we got Winnie home and she immediately started following me around and quickly grew possessive of me and jealous of my wife….my wife would sit next to her and Winnie would look at her as if she was crazy and immediately walk away.

Things changed after rescuing domino. When I brought domino home I didn’t know how to introduce them and when I showed her, her new sister she smelled her, looked confused, hissed, then hid under the bed—- anytime I was around. We had Winnie for about 6 months before Domino and we didn’t even know she knew how to hiss! Despite their poorly judged introduction, Winnie took to domino when I wasn’t looking. She routinely bathed domino throughout her kitten years and they were always around one another.

Winnie used to have the biggest jumps and she would routinely hit the back of the couch and run away while my wife and I would try to enjoy a movie or tv show. She almost seemed to laugh while running away.

Like many cats, she is addicted to screwing with the Christmas tree. She would jump in the tree, chew the wires, sleep under the tree, knock off the ornaments. One year, we fortified the surround of the tree, only to see her on camera systematically undoing said fortification, one layer at a time. We no longer deal with the tree lol.

She stills talks up a storm and spends as much time sitting on my chest or my wife’s computer as she can.

She can’t really jump higher than a foot or two now, for some reason hisses at feather toys, and has her own health problems (CKD, and back issues), but such a character nonetheless.

Her name is Domino, my best friend for 17 years. Sadly, she passed from complications of lymphoma despite 10 months of fighting and throwing everything we could to prolong a good life. Up until the last 2 weeks you wouldn’t have known she was as sick as she was.

I found her in the wooded backroads of a small town in Texas. She had run out in front of the car and I almost crashed my buddy’s new sports car dodging her. Running over, I saw this tiny calico kitten look at me with no fear, just a loud shrill as to say are we going or what?

Living in Austin and far from this small town, I made a deal with my friend that I would pay to get her checked up and ready for adoption, but they would have to adopt her out. Needless to say, she wasn’t having it. She wouldn’t leave my side and seemed to live on my shoulder.

Fast forward through the years, she was with me since graduating college. She took care of me through multiple surgeries. Stuck by me at my sickest, and saw me through multiple career milestones.

She lived life cranked to 11 since day one. She would run up and down the stairs when I would play music in the house, pounce on me while I was sleeping, and gave almost every vet/vet tech she met a run for their money. She was fearless.

The illness came in 2025 where I found her looking tired and not right. We took her to an er vet hospital and they concluded she had minor IBD, — they gave her metro and sent us on our way. She became more lethargic that night and after speaking with the er vet, they said give it 48hrs. We did and she got progressively worse and started showing neurological symptoms.

We brought her back to the ER only to learn she had lost 50% of her HCT within that 48hrs. IBD had now been complicated by IMHA (an immune disorder where the immune system attacks its own blood cells). This is where our fight started.

IBD+IMHA was soon complicated by lymphoma, then seizures, then toxoplasmosis. Domino had collected menagerie of specialists: an internist, an in-home vet tech, neurologist, an oncologist and an opthamogist. She was so sick, but was fierce regardless. She would hiss, spit, and bite the vets. At one point I recall seeing 5 techs circled around her carrier strategizing her removal.

Despite this, she mostly had a great team and all admired her tenacity and willpower. Some specialists were not so great, but that’s a story regarding veterinary medicine for another time.She had 2 blood transfusions, chemo, extremely high dose pred and ended up getting toxoplasmosis from one of the facilities as her immune system was suppressed from the chemo and pred. The treatment for the toxo was the final straw and she just couldn’t recover. She passed surrounded by her family and her adopted sister.

As horrible and expensive the fight was, we got
an extra 10 months with her. Most of those, good months. Complete remission, until it wasn’t. Our perspective was, if she fights, we fight. She would hold my hand with her paw every night, play with her toys and enjoy her walks in her stroller until her last day.

We miss her deeply….and now some of you know the story of Domino. And if I had to do it again, i totally would. She is that special.

I noticed some lift lines on the trunk of my c8. The PPF guy said it might not come out and he may need to redo the panel with a seam in the middle. I haven’t seen or heard of this being an issue before. Anyone have any ideas? It’s xpel ppf.

Thanks!