Kabosu, the Japanese Shiba Inu whose slight, side-eyed look in an image turned into an iconic "doge" internet meme and later became the face of a cryptocurrency, has died, according to the dog’s owner.The dog’s owner, Atsuko Sato, confirmed the news on Friday in a poem published on her blog."She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her," Sato wrote, according to a translation by the AFP news agency. "I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world.
She posted the image on her blog, from where it was later shared more widely across the internet and inspired popular memes. The memes, characterized by broken English in Comic Sans font, were typically used to share the inner thoughts of the Shiba Inu "doge," pronounced "dohj."The picture also later became an NFT digital artwork that sold for $4 million and inspired the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, AFP reported.