The dog from the doge meme has died

Photo: Cameron Allan McKean / The VergeThe face of one of the defining memes of the 2010s, the doge meme, died on Friday. Kabosu, the shiba inu with the knowing face that launched a million internet jokes, was 18...

Lynk Lynk
May 24, 2024 - 21:02
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The dog from the doge meme has died

The face of one of the defining memes of the 2010s, the doge meme, died on Friday. Kabosu, the shiba inu with the knowing face that launched a million internet jokes, was 18 when she died, her owner posted on Instagram.

Kabosu’s life story feels like an unlikely fairy tale for the internet age. In 2008, she was a rescue dog adopted by Atsuko Sato, a kindergarten teacher. Sato kept up a blog where she shared pictures of her pets, and in February 2010, she posted what at the time was an ordinary update. Little did Sato know, one of the pictures of her dog would eventually be seen by the entire internet.

The doge meme has been used by everyone from government agencies to weather apps, and last year, the Reddit user who discovered Kabosu went to Japan for the first time for International Doge Day.

Kabosu’s suspicious, amused, almost human face was eventually used as the logo for Dogecoin, a joke cryptocurrency that was promoted by Elon Musk on Saturday Night Live in 2021. Musk was also sued by Dogecoin investors, who accused the billionaire of pumping up the value of the cryptocurrency and then letting it nosedive.

But it seems Kabosu lived a quaint, happy life away from crypto lawsuits and internet crowds. Sato has organized a goodbye party for the beloved dog, to be held this weekend.

“Kabosu is very different from the typical temperament of Shiba,” Sato told The Verge in 2013. “She’s very gentle and calm; she loves being photographed.” Wow. Much perfect, very missed.