Kabosu stopped eating and drinking on her own. She was diagnosed with acute cholangiohepatitis and chronic lymphoma leukemia, a blood cancer. Sato wrote on Instagram that she was in "a very dangerous condition."
She pulled through. Her appetite came back, though she moved less, and more slowly.
On November 2, 2023, her 18th birthday by Sato's count, the bronze Kabosu was unveiled in Sakura, sitting on a stone couch in her famous pose, surrounded by bronze figures of the cats she lived with.