The picture spread across Reddit, Tumblr and 4chan, covered in Comic Sans captions in broken English. People called it "Doge," a joke spelling of "dog." By 2013, it was one of the biggest memes of the year.
That same year, a new cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, put Kabosu's face on its logo. TIME later named her one of the 100 most influential animals, and in 2019, Doge was voted the meme of the decade.
Sato was frightened. "I was terrified at the thought that just one photo I had casually posted on my blog could spread all over the world," she said.
In Sakura, Kabosu had no idea.