Once upon a time, in the heart of Japan, there lived a dog named Kabosu. With golden fur, and a face so iconic, little did she know that she was going to spark a revolution. Popularly known as the “Doge meme”, she passed away recently. But how did she become a global meme? What was her story?
Kabosu was named after a Japanese citrus fruit. Her story is like a sweet fairytale, with humble beginnings to internet stardom. Sent to an animal shelter with some other Shiba Inu dogs after her breeder went out of business, she was adopted in 2008 by a kindergarten teacher named Atsuko Sato.
Sato had a blog. And she began posting pictures of Kabosu on it. Then came 2010, and one specific photo of Kabosu broke the internet. The picture had the dog with her ‘eyebrows’ raised, sitting crossed legged on a sofa.
Meme enthusiasts remixed the photo with humorous two-word phrases, making them intentionally grammatically incorrect. And this is how the dog turned into the Doge meme!
From memes to Dogecoin — much wow!
The Doge became so popular that eventually her face was adopted as the logo for Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency introduced as a jest in 2013. The Dogecoin surged in value in 2021, turning investors into millionaires, before eventually declining in popularity.
“She’s very gentle and calm; she loves being photographed,” said her owner Sato in an interview, as per reports by the New York Times.
Much bipartisanship. Very spending. Wow. #doge http://t.co/NMlzqrZS8e pic.twitter.com/zjQTrfoUFJ
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 23, 2013
Beyond memes and Dogecoin — so amaze!
Kabosu’s photo had also become an NFT digital artwork that sold for 4 million dollars and inspired Dogecoin, reported BBC.
Billionaire Elon Musk was so fascinated with Doge that he changed the icon for X (formerly twitter) to Kabosu’s face, last year.
In November 2023, Kabosu’s hometown of Chiba in Japan, honoured her with a special monument. Erected in Sakura City’s Sakura Furusato Hiroba riverside park, the monument showcases a statue of Kabosu sitting on a stone sofa, mirroring her iconic pose from the Doge meme.
The $100,000 statue was crowdfunded by Own The Doge, a crypto organisation dedicated to the meme. Sato and Own The Doge have also generously donated to international charities.
Health disturbances — much sad!
In 2022, Atsuko Sato disclosed that Kabosu had been diagnosed with chronic lymphoma leukemia, a type of cancer. Additionally, she also had acute cholangiohepatitis, an ailment characterized by inflammation of the liver and its adjacent areas.
Suffering with her maladies, Kabosu died on May 24.
“She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her,” Sato wrote on her blog, reported BBC. “I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world. And I was the happiest owner.”
Internet reacts — so shock!
Today Kabosu, our community’s shared friend and inspiration, peacefully passed in the arms of her person. The impact this one dog has made across the world is immeasurable.
She was a being who knew only happiness and limitless love.
Please keep her spirit and her family in…
— Dogecoin (@dogecoin) May 24, 2024
As word of Kabosu’s demise spread, social media poured with memes, GIFs, and heartfelt messages faster than you could say “much sad”. For a dog who served as the muse for countless online jokes, it was a fitting farewell.
So as Kabosu closed her eyes, the internet village gathered to pay their tributes. And in the memes all over the internet, the Doge lived happily ever after!
(With inputs from BBC, New York times, CoinDesk)