Before She Was Doge

The photograph still circulates, fixed on February 13, 2010. The statue in Sakura holds the same pose, but it adds what the meme never had: the cats she lived with, gathered around her. Kabosu was a puppy-mill dog, one of twenty at a shelter, rescued by volunteers and chosen by a kindergarten teacher. The world met her at four. Sato was there for sixteen of her eighteen years.