The Death Of Kabosu / Doge

Overview

The Death Of Kabosu, also known as the Doge's Death, refers to the peaceful passing away of the Shiba Inu known as the meme Doge, whose real name is Kabosu, on May 24th, 2024. In the wake of her passing, many fans of hers, as well as enthusiasts of Dogecoin and other Doge-related memes, began to post memorials, fan art, tributes and their favorite memes from Dogelore as their way of paying respects. The dog's death also garnered considerable press and media coverage around the globe.

Background

On May 3rd, 2024, the Instagram account belonging to Kabosu's owner, @Kabosumama^[1] (Atsuko Sato), posted an image celebrating that Kabosu was 18 years and six months old. In the photo, showing Kabosu's now gray and white fur mixed with cloudy eyes, fans began to speculate as to the dog's health (Kabosu was notably diagnosed with cancer in late 2022), believing that the time would be coming up soon (shown below).

The last images posted to Instagram showing Kabosu alive came two weeks later, on May 19th, 2024, showing a trip to the park. In the pictures, Kabosu is seen having to use a walker to support her body, with fans speculating that she appeared to be in pain due to a perceived grimace in many of the pictures. That same day, X / Twitter user @willo_0x^[2] posted the images and was amazed that Kabosu was still alive, saying that they looked like a zombie (shown below).

Death

On May 24th, 2024, Kabosumama (Atsuko Sato) posted an image to her Instagram^[3] of a younger Kabosu smiling, saying that on the morning of May 24th, Kabosu passed away peacefully while being petted by her. The post ended by appreciating everyone over the years who has been a fan of Kabosu, and a later post^[4] informed everyone that a memorial service would be taking place on Sunday, May 26th, from 1 to 4 p.m. (shown below, left and right).

Atsuko Sato also made a post on her blog^[8] that same day announcing Kabosu's passing.

Online Reactions

Immediately upon hearing the news, fans of Kabosu and Doge began to mourn, transcending language and cultural barriers around the internet. For example, on May 24th, 2024, X user @SoySimpsonito^[5] uploaded a picture of Homer Simpson staring up at a night sky while sitting on the roof of his car, pondering life, with Doge superimposed on the night sky, writing in Spanish that Kabosu had passed away (shown below).

Later that same day, X user @howlsnteeth^[6] uploaded an original fan art of Kabosu and Laika, the first dog to be sent into space by the Soviet Union, while saying that they originally joked about Kabosu being as culturally impactful to humanity as Laika, but that they honestly do believe it, before paying their respects (shown below).

On Reddit, numerous communities began posting about the passing with memes and other media, often referencing Dogelore or other meme-adjacent things.

On May 24th, 2024, Redditor u/uppsak^[7] posted an image of Meme Heaven with Cheems, who had passed away in August 2023, welcoming Doge into heaven (shown below). That same day, a post to the /r/Dogelore^[9] subreddit noting Kabosu's passing received over 11,000 upvotes and 200 comments in 10 hours.

The news of Kabosu's death also garnered widespread media coverage from outlets around the world. For example, AP News,^[10] Deadline^[11] and many other international news stations covered the story on May 24th, 2024 (examples seen below, left and right).

Memorial

On May 26th, 2024, the memorial service was held for Kabosu. An image shared from KabosuMama's^[12] Instagram page showed a long line of people trying to get into the memorial service, with the caption welcoming everyone who wanted to show up and encouraging them. The event went by with little fanfare, and a picture of the Doge monument from November was shared with it having received a lot of flowers (shown below, left and right).

Search Interest

External References