Kabosu, the Shibo Inu that became an early internet meme and was used as the literal face of the fake cryptocurrency Dogecoin, is terminally ill with liver disease and cancer, the dog’s owner announced, CBS News reports.
Atsuko Sato, Kabosu’s owner, chronicled in a series of Instagram posts over the past week that the dog is in “very serious condition” with an enlarged liver and chronic lymphoma leukemia. After not eating or drinking on Christmas Eve, Sato posted that the 17-year-old dog has eaten and drank water in the meantime.
Kabosu became one of the first viral memes when a photo of him was lifted from Sato’s personal blog. The photo, which showed the dog apparently smirking at the camera, became popular with people who added two-word, virtually always misspelled, phrases representing what the dog is supposed to be thinking.