Kabosu: Dog that inspired 'doge' meme and face of cryptocurrency Dogecoin dies after 14 years of internet fame

Kabosu, the dog that inspired the "doge" meme, has died after 14 years of internet fame, according to her owner. The Japanese Shiba Inu became a symbol for online humour and the Dogecoin cryptocurrency. She had been battling leukemia and liver disease, and she died on May 24.

Owner Atsuko Sato wrote on her blog, announcing the death as she thanked her fans that helped her with the popularity. She said: “"She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her," Atsuko Sato wrote on her blog. I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world. And I was the happiest owner."

Kabosu was a rescue dog with an unknown exact birthdate, but Ms Sato estimated her age to be 18. In 2010, two years after adopting Kabosu from a puppy mill where she was about to be put to sleep, Ms Sato, a teacher from Sakura, near Tokyo, took a photo of Kabosu with her paws crossed on the sofa.

She shared the image on her blog, from where it quickly spread to Reddit and evolved into a meme popular in college dorms and office emails alike.

These memes often featured humorous broken English to depict Kabosu's and other Shiba Inus' "doge" thoughts – "doge" being pronounced like "dough" with a "j" at the end.

The image eventually became an NFT digital artwork that sold for $4 million (£3.1m) and inspired Dogecoin, which was created as a joke by two software engineers. Today, Dogecoin is the eighth-most valuable cryptocurrency, with a market cap of $23 billion. Dogecoin has been endorsed by celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Gene Simmons of Kiss.

However, its most prominent supporter is billionaire Elon Musk, who often jokes about the currency on X (formerly Twitter), boosting its value, and refers to it as "the people's crypto."

Kabosu became ill with leukemia and liver disease in late 2022. In a recent interview with AFP, Ms Sato said the "invisible power" of prayers from fans worldwide helped Kabosu recover temporarily. Ms Sato, 62, mentioned she had grown accustomed to extraordinary events, so when Elon Musk changed Twitter's icon to Kabosu's face last year, she "wasn't even that surprised."

In November last year, a $100,000 statue of Kabosu and her sofa, crowdfunded by Own The Doge, a crypto organisation dedicated to the meme, was unveiled in a park in Sakura.

Sato and Own The Doge have also donated significant amounts to international charities, including over $1 million to Save the Children, which the NGO described as "the single largest crypto contribution" it has ever received.