Remembering Yofi

[gnomi]

Thanks to dianora2 for pointing out an odd case of copyright infringement.

ETA: She took down the icon and apologized. All is well.

My default userpic is of my cat, Yofi. I got Yofi in 1980, when I was 9. She was my 9th birthday gift from my parents, and she was the kitten of a litter from a cat belonging to a friend of my sister. I had Yofi from the summer of 1980, when Yofi was 8 weeks old, until the spring of 2001, when she died a week after her 21st birthday.

She was an odd little cat. She was mostly Siamese, we think, though we were never sure. Her coloring (white with odd black splotches) reminded my family of a Holstein cow, and she was very small, so we sometimes referred to her as a semi-stein (or, when I was being odd, a hemi-semi-demistein). She'd climb into the oddest places, such as the top of the sukkah frame my parents had built onto their back porch in 1989. She'd climb up there and wander around on the slats for the schach and then meow piteously because she couldn't figure out how to get back down. Since she was skittish, however, she didn't like me to try to pick her up to help her back down. So I would climb up to try to get her down, and she'd shimmy down one of the uprights right after I got up on the chair/ladder/whatever to try to help her down.

Her two favorite places to sleep were in fresh-from-the-dryer laundry and on whatever black clothing happened to be available (though she had a distinct fondness for my black wool cloak). Maximum shedding potential was always my theory.

My parents took care of Yofi after I graduated high school, went to Israel and then college, and then got married. I didn't feel it was right to move a geriatric cat around so much, and since she was used to being an indoor-outdoor cat (much like indoor-outdoor carpeting, I used to joke), I didn't think it was fair to coop her up in an apartment all day.

I think of Yofi regularly, and she is still dear to me, which is why she is the image I use in my default user pic.

I was therefore quite distressed to learn that another LJ user was using my picture as a default pic. My user pic is cropped from a scan of a photo I took about 15 years ago; it and a couple of other pictures of Yofi are linked off my homepage at http://www.asknomi.com/yofipic.html. And therefore this other LJ user's unauthorized use of my photo is a copyright violation.

I left a comment in her journal asking that she cease using my photo, and I hope she will do so.

Comments

[bbennett.livejournal.com]

I think of my cat all the time; her photo is on my dresser. She's been gone a year and a half.

Yofi sounds like she was a lovely kitty.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Condolences on your cat. It's never easy.

And thank you. Yofi was a lovely, if off-beat, kitty.

[tygerseye.livejournal.com]

How odd. But don't you wonder what made this person pick your cat picture of all things? I mean, maybe it's flattery, he/she thinks your cat is cute. :D

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Vaguely flattering, true. And if she'd asked, I might've said yes.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

Weird. That seems...way too personal, you know?

And what a lovely kitty. She sounded wonderful. I still think of my Titania a lot, so I understand. If someone took her userpic, I'd be very distressed.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

It did seem more personal than, say, if she'd lifted, say, one of the penguin icons.

Is that Titania in the sink in your icon? That is one gorgeous kitty.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was her. She was my writing buddy, and died far too soon. Thankfully, the kittens have taken over for her, and will curl up next to me as I type in exactly the same spot she used to use. I think what I miss most about her was how great she was to hug. She was a good armful of cat, and she liked being hugged so much that her purrs would turn to coos when you squeezed her.

[kuroshii.livejournal.com]

and they broke LJ etiquitte even further by not asking you first, and (presumably) not giving you credit whether or not you would have said yes. with both of my not-homemade ones, i had permission first. with Gir, i asked the maker who i was already LJ-friends with. she's part of an LJ-icon making community. with this here Gaz one, the maker was/is a stranger to me but the page it was on (an icon gallery) said "permission to use, just please give me credit." otherwise i would not have.

one of those grumpy reminders that 90% of the folks on here are under 18.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Not only LJ etiquette, actually, but LJ stated rules. I could have reported it to LJ Abuse had she refused to take it down, since I demonstrably hold the copyright to the photo.

All of my icons either were made by me, personally, or -- like yours -- taken from a "use and credit" gallery of icons.

[cellio]

How odd that someone would steal a picture of Yofi. I mean yes, she was a gorgeous kitty, but it's not like this other person had any connection to her. Weird.

A cat reaching 21 is pretty amazing. You and your parents must have taken good care of her and given her lots of love.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

It was weird, and I was actually surprised by how personal it felt when I found out.

We used to say that Yofi lived for so long because she was terrified of everything, so anything that might've hurt her, she ran away from. She wasn't much of a cuddler, except on her terms (and odd terms they were). I consider myself lucky to have had her in my life for so long.

[kalessin.livejournal.com]

Yep, Yofi was good at the disappearing. She would sniff at my fingers, though, if she was out and about around your house when my family was visiting... :-)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I got Yofi in 1980, when I was 9. Which makes it easy to pin down when we met. :-) I'm sorry someone stole your picture, that's really creepy and invasive... I hope they respect your wishes and stop using it.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Yup. I got her that summer from someone Becky knew at Maimo, and then I started at Maimo in September.

She did stop using my icon and she apologized, so it's all settled now.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Very glad to hear it!

[deerdancer22.livejournal.com]

I so enjoyed reading this post. I have loved all the animals that have shared my life, yet every once in a while there is this very special bond. I felt I was reading that about you and Yofi.