Kabosu’s bamboozled face and side eye often overlaid with comic sans text became a hit meme template for awkward situations (Picture: Atsuko Sato)
The Shiba Inu who shot to fame by becoming a meme is sick with leukaemia and liver disease.
‘Kabosu’, who is also the face of the popular cryptocurrency Dogecoin, is in ‘a very dangerous condition’ after being diagnosed with acute cholangiohepatitis, a type of inflammation in the digestive system, and chronic lymphoma leukaemia, a blood cancer.
This week, the dog’s owner, Atsuko Sato, a teacher living in Japan, said in a series of Instagram posts that the 17-year-old dog was in bad shape.
‘Right now, the liver level is very bad and jaundice appears,’ Sato wrote in one caption. ‘But antibiotics will definitely improve.’
The dog had stopped eating and drinking over the weekend but was beginning to get her energy back, said Sato.
The rescue dog became an internet sensation after his photo from Sato’s personal blog went viral in 2010.
Kabosu’s bamboozled face and side eye often overlaid with comic sans text became a hit meme template for awkward situations.
Users began referring to the image as ‘doge’, which first appeared in a 2005 episode of an animated web series, ‘Homestar Runner’.
Doge’s biggest moment came in 2013 when he became the face of the cryptocurrency named after the meme, Dogecoin.
The currency, which started off as a joke, jumped in value when Elon Musk started endorsing it.
Musk previously posted several tweets in favour of the cryptocurrency calling it his ‘favourite’ coin. He had even said that he ‘bought some dogecoin’ for his son X Æ A-Xii.
In 2021, the iconic image of Kabosu sold as an NFT for a record $4 million.
In June, Musk was sued for £209 billion over an alleged ‘Dogecoin pyramid scheme’.
On Instagram, Kabosu’s owner thanked the dog’s fans for the outpouring of support, saying the pair were ‘getting power from all over the world’.
Still, Kabosu will go down in internet history as the most popular dog in internet culture.
MORE : Dogecoin goes up 8% after Elon Musk tweets his support
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The iconic image of Kabosu sold as an NFT for a record $4 million.
