Kabosu, the dog who went viral after inspiring the 'Doge' meme, dies at 18

Kabosu, the dog that went viral after inspiring the "Doge" meme died this Friday at the age of 18. Her owner, Atsuko Sato, shared the news on her blog and, later, on her Instagram profile:

The Shiba Inu became popular 14 years ago. A photo of Kabosu with a surprised look on her face went viral on social media and was shared thousands of times. Sato told local media that she took the photo after adopting Kabosu when she was only three years old. At the time, Kabosu was trying to get used to her new home.

Originally the photo went mostly unnoticed. Years later, the photograph reappeared. In 2017, the meme became popular again, this time, and under the name "Ironic Doge." Kabosu's face was cut out and placed on different backgrounds that caught the attention of Internet users.

To this day, the photo of the Shiba Inu is still used to make countless memes. Not only that, Kabosu's face has also been used on products and even brands, such as the DogeCoin cryptocurrency whose logo was used to temporarily replace the Twitter bird last August.