Tribute - Balltze “A.K.A. Cheems - Dogecoin” (Shiba Inu)

Dog Gone
Episode 05: Tribute - Balltze “A.K.A. Cheems - Dogecoin” (Shiba Inu)

Jason Connell pays tribute to the passing of Kathy's dog, Balltze A.K.A. Cheems, who became the logo for the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

Balltze A.K.A. Cheems (Shiba Inu)
January 9th, 2011 –  August 18th, 2023
(12 years, 7 months, 9 days)

Recorded: 08-28-23
Studio: Just Curious Media
https://www.JustCuriousMedia.com/

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Transcript

Jason Connell: 0:01

Whoa, just curious. Welcome to Just curious media. This is doggone. And I'm Jason Connell. So for those of you who do not know our even if you do know, this is a dog lovers podcast devoted to honoring the lives and memories of man's best friend. And on this particular episode, it's a tribute episode as we work to get more guest on who want to come on and share the lives of their last dog, which is hard to do. It's therapeutic and beautiful, but it's not easy, especially if it's fresher and newer, and even if it's longer, the pain is there, but it's a little bit easier as time passes. But this is a tribute episode. So I see. Famous dogs are just interesting stories of lost dogs and if there's enough online, we'll come here and do a much shorter episode just to have more content to honor more dogs and this one caught my eye for sure. Because today the tribute is for Molesey aka cimes who is a famous and iconic Shiba Inu. Now I'll show you the photos here shortly. But you'll recognize bolt See, aka cimes because he became the logo for the famous cryptocurrency Dogecoin. So I read this article to share the day Balti, the iconic cimes meme dies at age 12. So here's the photos for those watching online or looking on YouTube. afterwards if you want to look him up, please do. So the first image is the famous iconic image which was then used for a meme and then later became the logo. And there it is right there. Great. We're gonna get into the owner and do some more backstory on bald see. And I'll show you another photo just a second. Ah, so cute looking straight at the camera laughing living the life. Such a cute cute dog Balti. James I guess I gotta pick a name every now and again in this and this episode. And then here is Maltese owner Kathy, kissing young Biloxi. cimes, which I do this all the time with my dogs or I have done I just love kissing the dog. Okay, so I'm going to leave the iconic image up here and get into more of the story on August 18 2023, Balti aka cimes the iconic dog meme and Dogecoin logo, who had been diagnosed with leukemia in December 2022. tragically passed away at the age of 12 while undergoing surgery. Now Bolts is owner Cathy who I just showed you kissing volti confirm the Shiba E News passing through an Instagram post on August 20 2023. So this is very recent. We are still in August, and I was going to do another tribute episode but I was like wait a second. Balti has passed away so I'm doing this one first. So this is from Kathy's Instagram. Ball ball. I guess it's a nickname for Balti fell asleep on August 18. He fell asleep on Friday morning during his last thoracentesis surgery. Originally we wanted to arrange chemotherapy or other possible treatment for him after this operation, but it is too late now. Don't be sad. Please remember the joy that Balti brought to the world, a Shiba Inu, with a round smiling face connecting you and me. He has helped many people during the pandemic and brought a lot of joy to many of you. But now his mission has completed. Now that's really touching I love when an owner can kind of have that stance and understand bolts his role and I've never had a dog that became a viral sensation probably should have, but I haven't. And this dog became incredibly famous. So I love that she recognizes he has fans. He served people in so many ways and will continue to do so and that's beautiful that this dog has a legacy. And I think that's great. I hope that this episode is another piece of that and maybe turns more people on to to learn about Balti cimes but really beautiful and it went on from there. I just took out the first part of the post, so I'll continue now Balti was adopted by Kathy in Hong Kong at the age of one and 2015 the creation of his dedicated Instagram account Balti, I highly recommend checking it out. mark the beginning of his journey to internet fame. Kathy utilize this platform to share a collection of photos capturing bolts these distinct Express shins and emotions throughout his daily life. Yes, this main photo here, which I'm leaving up over my left shoulder is really great. It's just so funny than they, they went in and just use like his head, his face because this expression is worth 1000 words. So, to that point, this most recognizable and iconic image POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 4 2017, and it became the foundation for a meme in 2019 where he playfully says, cheeseburger. Like in the meme, they just wrote that like, Oh, this guy, he would probably make a mistake and save cimes as opposed to cheese, which became adorable online. So this meme which contributed to the character being named James, which is now the aka of Balti, intentionally used misspelling to convey a sense of whimsical goofiness and adorable charm. And so what made the cimes character truly iconic was how the endearing speech impediment humorously aligned with the dog's seemingly unbothered and irresistibly cute demeanor. Well said, and I totally agree it was perfect. Sometimes these things just line up great. It's like, Yeah, we could have done that. But it's just luck, fate, all these things at play to create a meme that just takes off virally. Now, the dog's popularity grew even more as the meme culture took off on social media sites. It later became Of course, as I've mentioned, the face of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that was supported by Elon Musk, which if you read the news about crypto a few years ago, he would do a tweet and it would shoot up the price of Dogecoin. And so and I still think there's a place for Dogecoin to kind of had a break out a few years ago, it's come back down just a few pennies of value. But I think it's going to be that first cryptocurrency that people will use because the value is so low, and they'll get used to transactions and then, you know, it's a, we're in no race. It's the long play, but I do believe Dogecoin still has a place in this space. So additionally, the popularity of cimes led to the creation of an NF T collection based on his cheeseburger jokes. So for those of you collecting NF TS look up Balti dreams and see what's out there. I'm sure it's not cheap. Now, just to talk a little bit more about Dogecoin. It was established in 2013 as a joke on the speculation of crypto coins. Now, over time, it quickly became a community friendly currency. And here's this playful logo, of course. Now, it's very popular with Reddit and Twitter users. Oh, should I say x now sorry, but old Twitter's users. Now the representatives and officials of Dogecoin do use memes and jokes as marketing materials and elements of their brand identity. And, of course, its name and logo derives from a Japanese dog molsey A shiba inu and they're better known as chimps, or as just Doge. So there you go. I had no idea that Doge spawned from Shibu Ino and Japan so doge coin, I guess it could have called it multi coin cimes coin, but Doge coins perfect. And so there is the legacy of Balti cimes Dogecoin. But at the heart of this, we lost a very adorable dog at the age of 12. And anytime is too soon to lose a dog twelves a good run, I would say my first dog lived to be, you know, just in that range. My second one too soon. So when you lose them early, it's extra hard, but it's still very sad. And my heart goes out to Cathy and her family and any and everybody who actually interacted with and spent time with bolts See, seemed like just a champion dog in every way. And I love the story. I love that. His image on Instagram went viral and he has this other life. And obviously it did not go to his head. Although maybe it did. Maybe when he went out he was a hit and he was like Man, this is great. But regardless thoughts and prayers go out to Balti aka cimes Shiba Inu. We'd love to come back and do more of these tribute episodes. So please keep coming back and supporting us and for those who want to be a guest. If you've recently experienced the passing of a dog and would like to share your story on the dog on podcast, please reach out to us. We would love to hear your story to share your story to celebrate Eat your dog. And until then we will keep coming back and supporting dogs as that's all we know how to do. So thank you so much for listening and please be sure to subscribe to the dog on podcast and the dog on YouTube Live Channel. You can also really help us by giving the show a five star rating on Apple podcast. And for all you listeners that enjoy sharing your thoughts. You can leave us a review on Apple podcast, send us a direct message or post a comment on any dog on social media platform. We also highly recommend checking out our other podcast and visiting just curious media.com