Dog That Inspired ‘Doge’ Meme Dies at 18
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital Editor Much sad: Kabosu, the real-life Shiba Inu that was the basis for the popular “doge” internet meme — and became the face of the logo of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency — died Friday at her home in Japan.
She was 18. “On the morning of the 24th of May, Kabosu crossed the rainbow bridge. Thank you all so much for your support over the years,” her owner, Atsuko Sato, said in a post on Instagram. “She went very peacefully without suffering, as if falling asleep while feeling the warmth of my hands petting her.” Sato confirmed Kabosu’s death in an email to the New York Times.
According to the Know Your Meme website, the doge meme featured the Shiba Inu in photos that “may be photoshopped to change the dog’s face or captioned with interior monologues in Comic Sans font.
The primary meme and iconography associated with Doge was the Shiba Inu named Kabosu, whose photos taken by her owner Atsuko Sato in early 2010 went viral across the internet.” Per the site, the use of the misspelled word “doge” to refer to a dog dates to June 24, 2005, when it was mentioned in an episode of Homestar Runner’s puppet show.
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