The dog who inspired Dogecoin has died

Kabosu, the dog that launched a thousand “doge” memes, has died, her owner announced Friday.

Kabosu, the dog that launched a thousand “doge” memes, has died, her owner announced Friday. The Japanese shiba inu “fell into a deep sleep” on Friday morning at 18 years of age, Atsuko Sato wrote in a blogpost. “Outside the window, birds were singing on a beautiful morning. As I was touching her, she gently passed away,” wrote Sato, a kindergarten teacher in the Japanese city of Sakura. “I think she was the happiest dog in the world.” Kabosu became one of the most recognizable animals on the internet back in 2010 when a photo of her posing with folded paws and a quizzical expression spread across forums such as Reddit. That sparked a proliferation of “doge” memes, based on an intentional misspelling of the word “dog,” with internet users photoshopping Kabosu’s face onto pastries, landmarks and other animals. The popularity of “doge” memes was cemented in December 2013, when Kabosu became the face of alternative cryptocurrency Dogecoin — a tongue-in-cheek response to Bitcoin that reflected the internet’s love of animal memes. Other meme tokens followed, including a shiba inu coin.