Dogecoin dog Kabosu dies after 14 years of internet fame as the ‘doge’ meme
Kabosu had been suffering from leukaemia and liver disease, and she died peacefully on May 24, her owner confirmed.
Kabosu, the Shiba Inu the dog who became an internet sensation as the “doge” meme, has passed away after a 14-year journey of online fame through memes, according to her owner. The Japanese Shiba Inu inspired a generation of online jokes and became the face of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency.
Kabosu had been suffering from leukaemia and liver disease, and she died peacefully on May 24. Atsuko Sato, owner, shared the sad news on her blog, expressing gratitude to Kabosu’s fans. “She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her,” Sato wrote, “I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world. And I was the happiest owner.”
As a rescue dog, Kabosu’s real birth date was unknown, but Ms. Sato estimated her age to be 18 years. In 2010, two years after adopting Kabosu from a puppy mill where she would otherwise have been put down, Ms. Sato, a teacher from Sakura, east of Tokyo, took a picture of her pet crossing her paws on the sofa. She posted this image on her blog, from where it quickly spread to the online forum Reddit. The picture soon evolved into a meme that circulated widely, from college bedrooms to office email chains.
The memes featuring Kabosu typically used broken English to convey the imagined inner thoughts of Kabosu and other Shiba Inu dogs, known as “doge.” The pronunciation of “doge” is akin to “dough” with a “j” sound at the end.
The image of Kabosu also later became a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) digital artwork, which sold for an astounding $4 million (£3.1 million). It also inspired the creation of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency initially started as a joke by two software engineers but is currently the eighth-most valuable cryptocurrency, boasting a market capitalization of $23 billion.
Dogecoin has received endorsements from several high-profile celebrities, including hip-hop star Snoop Dogg and Gene Simmons. Elon Musk, a notable supporter, frequently jokes about the currency on his social media platform, X (formerly known as Twitter), often causing its value to spike. He has referred to Dogecoin as “the people’s crypto.”
In late 2022, Kabosu’s health. Ms. Sato mentioned in a recent interview with AFP that the “invisible power” of prayers from fans around the world played an important role in helping Kabosu fight with her illness. Ms. Sato, who is 62 years old, added that she had become so accustomed to “unbelievable” occurrences that when Elon Musk changed the Twitter (now X) 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 iconic sofa was unveiled in a park in Sakura. This statue was crowdfunded by Own The Doge, a crypto organisation dedicated to the meme. Sato and Own The Doge also donated significant amounts to international charities including a contribution of over $1 million to Save the Children. According to the NGO, this donation represents “the single largest crypto contribution” it has ever received.
You might also be interested in – Delhi street dogs receive QR-based ‘Aadhaar cards’, Find out more details here
