@strikezzz Hi! Thank you for taking the time to message me. I don't recall commenting directly to a comment you made, but I've been nursing a headache all day. Which comment was it? I'm happy to hear out anyone's perspective.
To be clear, Goldleaf isn't a friend, she's my daughter.
Cat did let me know in another comment about that interaction. I can't say whether she saw Cat's cat axolotl hybrids before or after creating her own, I simply don't know the answer to that and won't presume one way or the other without having seen any evidence one way or the other. I don't sit and watch over her shoulder. I can say she did bring me her drawing of the hybrid in her journal on Sunday, if that helps the timeline at all. I hope this was a misunderstanding and not Goldleaf acting out of anger or jealousy, but only she knows that for sure.
With all that said cat axolotls are still not an original idea or creation by Cat and therefore she can't gatekeep their use (And somebody please correct me if i'm misgendering anybody.). Cat absolutely owns the copyright to her original characters and they can't be used without permission. I just double checked myself and have found a user on DeviantArt that posted their cat axolotl hybrid, that they called a Catatlotl, in 2012. Neither Cat nor Goldleaf should be claiming they created the cat axolotl hybrid. If Goldleaf did see Cat's cat axolotl art before creating her own she should have at least, as a courtesy, credited the inspiration to Cat, but is really under no obligation to do so since their hybrids don't look exactly alike. The only similarities I could find were the tails, but perhaps I just didn't see the right posts from Cat. I didn't see frilly gills on Cat's that were present on Goldleaf's, I didn't see fur on Goldleaf's that was present on Cat's, and it looked to me as if Cat's had cat paws where Goldleaf's had salamander feet.
https://www.deviantart.com/michifishu/art/Angel-the-Catalotl-326753291