Reign of Kabosu | 2013 - 2016[]
Wow.
The very first iteration of Doge (US: [doʊ̯d̠ʒ], sometimes [doʊ̯ɡ]), before the Happening occured - the timeline split and permanent destruction of Doge's sanity & personality, as well as the arrival of archetypical support and villain characters.
Kabosu (US: [kə'boʊ̯.sʉː], JP: かぼす [ka'bo.sɯᵝ]) was born in November 2nd, 2005 in a Japanese pedigree puppy mill that was promptly shut down, leaving Kabosu stranded in one of Japan's many animal shelters. The owner of Kabosu, Atsuko Sato, rescued her in 2008, saving her from certain death at the hands of humanity. Her name was given by a shelter volunteer - Kabosu is a type of fruit and said rescue worker mentioned that her face was very round, just like the fruit.[1]
In 2010, Kabosu's owner took several pictures of Kabosu, one including a peculiar image of the dog wearing her now renown photoshop job that led her to fame, and infamy in 2013 and beyond. Netizens overlaid silly multi-colored text over her face, turning her into the internet's new monthly fad. Kabosu's reign was not over, however, as she retained some of her popularity even into the current year.
Reign of Irony | 2016 - Present[]
Main article: Doge
Years of being stuck in one titular image birthed an anomaly. An anomaly that would spell the end of Kabosu's reign.
Doge could feel it all. He felt his permanent, frozen smirk. He felt his stiff ears, frozen for half a decade. He could feel himself in every photo and in every computer now - He could feel His own influence everywhere now. One copy grew sentience. It went mad. Doge shattered that day. His mind shattered. Forever.
In a singular motion, every picture of Kabosu grew sentience, and that sentience wasn't individual - it became a hive mind. Doge suddenly could grasp the whole world. He couldn't control his power. Only a few minutes later, Doge was shattered into millions of variants. He was simultaneously harassing his ex-wife, consoling his younger brother, committing hate crimes in Afghanistan... everything. He was doing everything at once - and he was EVERYTHING at once. Doge's consciousness was no longer an individual entity. All these variants were shattered pieces of his mind, and the true, real Doge has been lost forever.
This moment would be known as the Happening.
These variants run wild across the web we call the Internet. They crawl from electronic to electronic, infecting and corrupting all that is left in their wake. Some lure hosts in with a sense of wholesomeness, some with humor - whether tame or full of edge, and some just don't maintain any facade at all. They're all out there. They're in your phone. They're on this wiki. They're in your head. Try not to think about it.
In 2024, the dog that inspired all of this chaos left this world. But she still lives on in internet history to this day, you might even find a meme featuring her right after you read this.