Popular Dog meme " Doge" inspired by Shiba Inu diagnosed with serious illness.

Kabosu, the viral dog who inspired the "doge" meme and influenced digital culture is diagnosed with leukemia and liver disease.

The Shiba Inu dog's serious health illness was confirmed by her owner Atsuko Sato, a kindergarten teacher in Sakuro, Japan.

According to a series of Instagram posts by her owner Sato, the 17-year-old shiba inu stopped "eating and drinking voluntarily" on Christmas Eve, and has been diagnosed with acute cholangiohepatitis and chronic lymphoma leukemia.

She also said that Kabosu's liver is also in a very bad state and even jaundice appears.

The owner further writes that fortunately antibiotics is working and improving her appetite and she’s being able to drink water.

Netizens outpoured good wishes towards Kabosu, wishing her a speedy recovery.

The owner on the other hand, thanked everyone who expressed concern and wished her good health.

Kabosu became popular/ viral in social media  after a 2010 photo of her posing with folded paws and a quizzical expression spread across Reddit, Tumblr and 4Chan, overlaid with an imagined inner monologue in broken English using scattered Comic Sans text.

Soon after that netizens began photoshopping Kabosu's face onto pastries, landmarks and other animals. The meme was later co-opted by brands like Oreo and Stockholm's subway.

According to a report by CNN, "the popularity of the "doge" meme was cemented in December 2013, when two programmers introduced an alternative cryptocurrency called Dogecoin as a tongue-in-cheek response to Bitcoin that reflected the internet's love of animal memes. It reached a peak value of more than $400 in 2014, and is considered the first "meme coin" or satire of cryptocurrency."