Japanese dog that inspired memes and a cryptocurrency dies

The Japanese dog whose photo inspired a generation of oddball online jokes and the US$23 billion (S$31 billion) Dogecoin cryptocurrency beloved by eccentric billionaire Elon Musk died on May 24, her owner said.

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"She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her," Ms Atsuko Sato wrote on her blog, thanking the fans of her shiba inu called Kabosu - the face of the "Doge" meme.

"I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world. And I was the happiest owner," she wrote.

As a rescue dog, Kabosu's real birthday was unknown, but Ms Sato estimated her age to be 18, past the average lifespan for a shiba inu, with her birthday celebrated in November.

In 2010, two years after adopting Kabosu from a puppy mill where she would otherwise have been put down, Ms Sato took a picture of her pet crossing her paws on the sofa.

She posted that image - with the fluffy shiba inu giving the camera a beguiling look on her blog, from where it spread to online forum Reddit and became a meme that bounced from college bedrooms to office e-mail chains.