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My cousin asked my sister if that's my cats Koda and Lilly she found on the cover of a book (top left). Today I received these two copies in the mail directly from the publisher. Such a nice gesture. (lemmy.nz)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by slevinkelevra@sh.itjust.works to c/cat@lemmy.world

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High res pic I took six years ago:

The card reads: Warmest greetings from the DuMont publishing house. Have fun reading it!

The cover reads: Help, my cat is broken! 200 cats going beyond their limits

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[-] ryannathans@aussie.zone 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I do not speak German, nor have I ever understood German

But why do I feel like that book is titled '"help my cat is dead"

Where did you put the photo for it to be used on a book?

[-] slevinkelevra@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I just added a translation of everything. I put it on reddit back then and it went viral, especially the meme somebody made out of it with the caption: "French ~~aristocracy~~ royalty in the 18th century" and they posted it on r/dankmemes (can't find the post without an account) plus someone else crossposted to r/historymemes. As usual, my r/aww post got 10k points, while both others got about 40k upvotes. Boredpanda asked me for an interview a few weeks thereafter: https://www.boredpanda.com/optical-illusion-cat-without-head-i-spin-bubbles/

Edit: Links added

[-] bran_buckler@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago

It’s funny, I remember when this picture blew up!

[-] slevinkelevra@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago

Thanks, now I feel old. But so does Koda, so I guess that's fair. However I still don't have a nice beard ;-(

[-] HeartyOfGlass@piefed.social 14 points 1 day ago

Likely because "kaputt" translates to "kaput" in English, and depending on your region you may have heard something like "My computer went kaput" or "my car is kaput". Usually means the thing is non-functional; so broken, dead, etc.

[-] ryannathans@aussie.zone 6 points 1 day ago

That is definitely it, my great grandparents loved that word

[-] HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

Don't you think that just comes directly from the german word? Like how I've found 'no problemo' to work in pretty much any language I didn't speak.

[-] HeartyOfGlass@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago

Oh yes definitely. I'm not a linguist (just a fan), but I'd assume the English "kaput" was what happened as German immigrants naturalized in English-speaking countries.

[-] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

Not dead just broken.

[-] pixelmeow@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I also thought that, but then I remembered my Latin:

Kaput comes from the Latin for "head", caput. Knowing that but not knowing any German, my guess is because it looks like the cat's head is in the basket instead of on its neck :)

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Kaputt means "broken" or "non-functional" in German, like: Die Tasse von meiner Oma ist mir heruntergefallen. Nun ist sie kaputt. (I dropped my granny's cup. It's broken now.)
Here, it looks like the head of the cat is broken off.