Kabosu, the dog behind the “Doge” meme, has died after 14 years of internet fame, according to his owner. The Japanese shiba inu inspired a generation of internet jokes and became the face of cryptocurrency Dogecoin. He suffered from leukemia and liver disease and died on May 24.

«She passed away peacefully as if she was sleeping while I was petting her.», wrote Atsuko Sato on her blog, thanking Kabosu fans. «I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world. And I was the happiest owner.». Because he was a rescue dog, Kabosu's actual date of birth was unknown, but Sato estimated his age at 18.

In 2010, two years after adopting Kabosu from a puppy mill where she was reportedly euthanized, Sato, a teacher in Sakura, east of Tokyo, took a photo of her pet folding her paws on the sofa. He posted the image to his blog, where it spread across the online forum Reddit and became a meme that made the leap from college dorm rooms to office email chains.

The memes often used ridiculous, broken English to reveal the inner thoughts of Kabosu and other “doge” shiba inu. The image was also later turned into an NFT digital artwork that sold for US$1.4 million and inspired Dogecoin, which two software engineers started as a joke and is now the eighth most valuable cryptocurrency with a market cap of US$23 billion.

Dogecoin has received support from hip-hop star Snoop Dogg and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons. But its most enthusiastic supporter is billionaire Elon Musk, who has been making jokes about the coin on Twitter – causing its value to soar – and hailing it as “the people’s cryptocurrency”.

Kabosu fell ill with leukemia and liver disease in late 2022, and Sato said in a recent interview with AFP that the "invisible power" of prayers from fans around the world helped her cope. Sato, 62, said he was so used to “unbelievable” events that when Musk changed his Twitter icon to Kabosu’s face last year, he was “not even surprised.”

In November last year, a statue of Kabosu and his couch funded with US$ 100,000 by Own The Doge, a cryptocurrency organization dedicated to the meme, was unveiled in a park in Sakura. Sato and Own The Doge have also donated large sums to international charities, including over a million dollars to Save the Children. The NGO claims this is “the largest crypto contribution” it has ever received.

Source: BBC