Kabosu was a pedigree dog who was sent to an animal shelter when her puppy mill shut down. She was adopted in 2008 by Japanese kindergarten teacher Atsuko Sato, and named after the citrus fruit kabosu because Sato thought she had a round face like the fruit.
Kabosu was first pictured in a 2010 blog post by Sato; afterward, variations of the pictures using overlaid Comic Sans text were posted from a Tumblr blog, Shiba Confessions.
The use of the intentionally misspelled "Doge" dates back to June 2005, when it was mentioned in an episode of Homestar Runner's puppet series. She was also associated with Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency inspired by the Doge meme.
On December 28, 2022, Sato announced that Kabosu was seriously ill with leukemia, and soon after that her health had improved.
On May 24, 2024, it was announced on Sato's blog that she died at the age of 18, at 7:50 a.m. JST, in Sakura, Chiba
