A Shiba Inu best known as the dog behind the “doge” memes who went on to become the logo of Dogecoin cryptocurrency has died.
The Shina Inu named Kabosu died in Japan at the age of 18, according to The Associated Press. Kabosu’s owner, Atsuko Sato, said she died in her sleep in a social media post.
Sato said that she died on Friday, The New York Times reported.
“Outside the window, birds were singing on a beautiful morning. As I was touching her, she gently passed away,” wrote Sato, according to CNN. “I think she was the happiest dog in the world.”
Dogecoin also said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she had died, according to the AP.
Kabosu was one of the most popular animals on the internet dating back to 2010. According to CNN, it was a photo of her posing with a puzzled look on her face and folded paws that made its way to Reddit and helped her rise to prominence.
That photo led to “doge” memes, a purposeful misspelling of the word “dog,” according to CNN. Kabosu became a meme basically overnight, the AP reported.
A few years later, in 2013, Kabosu became the face of Dogecoin, CNN reported. Kabosu’s image was added to a gold coin as an emblem in 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported.