Kabosu, the Shiba Inu behind one of the most popular Internet memes, crossed the rainbow bridge on Friday, May 24, at the age of 18.
The news of Kabosu’s passing was announced by her owner, Atsuko Sato, on an Instagram story that read “Kabosu is at rest now” with a link to a farewell post on her blog.
Kabosu has been battling with a liver disease called acute cholangiohepatitis and chronic lymphoma leukemia since December 2022, as per her hooman.
In an Instagram post, Sato revealed that Kabosu crossed the rainbow bridge on the morning of May 24.
She also explained that the pooch died peacefully and without suffering, “as if falling asleep while feeling the warmth of my hands petting her.”
“I am certain that Kabosu was the happiest dog in the world,” Sato wrote while thanking everyone who loved her dog for all these years. “That makes me the happiest owner in the world.”
A farewell party for the beloved Shiba Inu was also held on Sunday, May 26, from 1 PM to 4 PM at a flower shop in Kotsu no Mori, Narita City called Flower Kaori.
As Kabosu crossed the rainbow bridge, she leaves behind her hooman, Atsuko Sato, and her two cat siblings, Tsutsuji and Ginnan.
Born in 2005, Kabosu was rescued by Sato from a puppy mill shutdown in 2008. Sato started posting about Kabosu enjoying life on her blog.
And thanks to Sato’s blog, Kabosu then went viral in 2013 after a photo of her from 2010 from the blog spread online and redefined the meme world.
The meme is a photo of Kabosu that is often accompanied by text in the Comic Sans font of broken two-word English phrases with “such amaze, much wow” as the most popular example.
Aside from the Doge meme, Kabosu also inspired and is the face of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency that was created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in 2013 as a joke.
While the cryptocurrency was started as a joke, it is currently the eight biggest cryptocurrency according to CoinMarketCap.
Not only that, but in 2023, a public monument was installed in Sakura, Chiba in honor of the dog. And earlier this year, a manhole cover with her famous Doge meme photo was installed in front of a snack shop in Sakura, just three minutes away from her monument.
Rest easy, Kabosu! You lived a life that was “such amaze, much wow” and your legacy will definitely live on.