The internet-famous Shiba Inu who inspired 'doge' memes, and a joke cryptocurrency, is seriously ill with cancer

• The internet-famous dog who inspired the "doge" memes is seriously ill, its owner said.
• Atsuko Sato said Tuesday that her Shiba Inu, Kabosu, was diagnosed with liver disease and leukemia.
• Shiba Inu dogs have an average life expectancy of between 12 to 15 years.

Kabosu, the internet-famous Shiba Inu who inspired the "doge" memes, is seriously ill with liver disease and leukemia, her owner said on Tuesday. 

The dog's owner, Atsuko Sato, a teacher in Sakura, Japan, gave an update on Instagram on December 27.

She said that Kabosu had been diagnosed with acute cholangiohepatitis, a liver condition, as well as chronic lymphoma leukemia, a type of blood cancer.

"Right now, the liver level is very bad and jaundice appears," Sato wrote in one post. "But antibiotics will definitely improve."

Sato said that Kabosu stopped "eating and drinking voluntarily" on Christmas Eve.

Cholangiohepatitis is a condition marked by inflammation of both the liver and the bile system. Lymphoma leukemia is the most common form of blood cancer reported in dogs. 

Kabosu became internet famous when a picture of her posing with folded paws and a quizzical expression went viral on Reddit, Tumblr, and 4Chan in 2010.

Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, the founders of Dogecoin — a cryptocurrency that was a tongue-in-cheek response to Bitcoin — eventually used Kabosu as their mascot. 

Despite being created as a joke, Dogecoin remains popular within the crypto world nearly 10 years after it was created. 

Last month, the meme-inspired cryptocurrency surged in value after Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted an image of a Shiba Inu dog wearing a Twitter T-shirt, adding a winking-face emoji. It is unclear whether the Shiba Inu was Kabosu.

Shiba Inu dogs have an average life expectancy of between 12 to 15 years. According to an Instagram post, Kabosu celebrated her 17th birthday in October.