The internet lost a legend today. Kabosu, the real-life Shiba Inu that inspired the seemingly eternal Doge meme, has died. She was 18, which is past the point most dog-to-human-years charts cut off, so her admirers can rest assured that she lived a long and happy life well into senior citizenship.
Kabosu’s owner, Atsuko Sato, shared the news on her today. “She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her,” Sato wrote in Japanese (via a translation). “I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world.
And I was the happiest owner.” According to previous announcements, Kabosu had been suffering from liver disease and leukemia since at least 2022. Sato adopted Kabosu from a puppy mill where she would have otherwise been put down in 2008.
Two years later, she took the photo that would go on to change the internet forever (and probably not for the better) of her new pet with her paws delicately crossed on the couch. It’s a cute photo, sure, but no picture could ever be cute enough to make up for the havoc it would wreak on the digital landscape for years to come. The whole thing started off innocently enough: people began sharing the photo with generally misspelled meant to illustrate the dog’s inner thoughts, thus birthing sweet Kabosu’s evil Tyler Durden alter-ego, Doge.
Despite a common misconception, Doge isn’t the one who inspired nails-on-a-chalkboard phrases like “Doggo” and “Pupper”— —but she certainly can’t have helped the situat.
