In the beginning, there was doge. Much laughs, such influence.

When kindergarten teacher Atsuko Sato snapped some photos of her Shiba dog, Kabosu, and posted them on her personal blog in early 2010, little did she realize that she would help foster one of the decade's biggest memes. One shot of Kabosu side-eyeing the camera morphed into "doge," a photo overlaid with words in comic sans font that became a constant presence on social media, before inspiring online games and cryptocurrency.

Besides being one of the most popular memes of the past 10 years, Kabosu's unlikely turn into internet artifact reflects the big decade animals had in Japan. The web — domestic and international — loves a cuddly critter and ate up stories about them. This diet taught us a lot about how the web worked and evolved over this time, with added kawaii for good measure.