Rory the Frenchie: Milwaukee dog takes over TikTok for loving Henry Cavill

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- One hometown dog gained hundreds of thousands of followers online for her failed attempts at winning local Halloween costume contests and for her love for one a-list actor."

"There are at least 5 of Rory," Heather Land said as she flipped through an adult coloring book filled with pictures of French Bulldogs.

Land showed CBS 58 her collection of adult coloring books she authored and illustrated, including the one with many drawings of her beloved Rory. Land calls Rory, a blue merle Frenchie, her "grumpy Oreo."

"She's sassy and cranky and sweet and hilarious and weird," Land said,

One day, the Milwaukee resident decided to show her spunky companion to the world by making Rory a TikTok account.

"I love sharing my dog with everybody because even if I didn't go on TikTok, I'd still just be filming everything that she does and recording her all day every day, anyway, because she's so cute and funny," she said.

She showed Rory's attempts at winning local contests with homemade outfits online, and dog lovers were hooked.

"The first video that ever went viral was Rory in her seal costume," Land explained. "We went around and did a whole bunch of costume contests in the Milwaukee area, and she lost all of them, and the internet was really, really upset about it."

A couple of years later, Rory really took over people's "For you page" on the social media app because of celebrity actor Henry Cavill.

"I was just watching 'The Witcher.' I put it on, and then I noticed she would run back and forth on the couch, stare at the TV, and make little noises. Then, she would get down on the floor and look up at it. It was only the scenes that had Henry Cavill in it, and I'm like, this is so weird. So, I recorded her and posted on TikTok like, 'My dog loves The Witcher,' and they're like, 'Oh, do you think she likes The Witcher? Or does she like Henry Cavill?'"

After the internet saw the Superman actor was Rory's kryptonite, they wanted Land to test her devotion.

"We did a bunch of other tests, like does she like his voice. So, I played a silent slideshow, and she started the whole thing. Then I played clips of just his voice with other actors, and she didn't look at the TV at all. She was wandering around the floor looking for him. I'm like, okay, that's odd," Land explained.

"So, then [my followers] suggested I give her a photo to look at. I set it up on the windowsill, and she just went over and sat on her little couch and stared at it, and she would go over multiple times a day and stare at her photo. Then people just started sending her Henry Cavill stuff, and now I have a shrine in my living room."

One of the tests included swapping Cavill out for a different superhero: Aquaman.

"Immediately, she turned around and looked at me like I was crazy. She was like, what is this man doing here? He does not belong," Land said as she laughed remembering Rory's reaction to the photo of Aquaman actor Jason Mamoa.

Rory's love for Cavill spread so much that it reached people at Netflix, the streaming service that produces Cavill's show "The Witcher."

"[Netflix] was like, 'We want to invite you to the Witcher season three premiere in London,' and my first thought was, 'How am I going to bring it down to London?'"

After spending all night researching how to take her grumpy Oreo across the pond, Land and Rory made it to Londontown for the premiere. The duo even toured the London Netflix office and walked the red carpet. At first, Land was not sure they would be able to meet Henry Cavill, but Rory was able to spend some time with her idol in person.

"She stopped walking as soon as she saw him and stared at him and looked at me, like, 'Is this really happening right now?'" Land said. "There were people circled all around, and she didn't look at any of them, and she stared right into his eyes."

Rory's followers could not have been happier for the four-legged fangirl.

"I will never forget there were hundreds of videos of people recording themselves crying, watching her meet Henry Cavill," Land said.

Months after Meeting Cavill, Rory met another DC Comic movie star, Jason Mamoa, during a signing at Total Wine in Brookfield. The pair waited in line in the rain to see if Rory would have the same reaction to Aquaman as she did to Superman. Land said Rory really did not react to seeing the actor in person, probably because he is not Cavill.

Now that the four-year-old Frenchie has walked the red carpet, she is set to use her celebrity to judge a dog reality show content Land created.

"It's a competition show for dogs and their owners, and we have eight contestants, all fantastic. I cannot wait for everybody to meet them, and they're going to do different fun challenges once a week at The Hounds and Tap in Menomonee Falls," Land said. "[Rory] is not going to give out any points, but she's just going to look at them weird. She's going to side-eye them."

While Rory is a star online, she is Land's shadow in real life, following her everywhere she goes, and Land is happy to give the world a fraction of the Rory she gets every day.

"It's amazing seeing how many people love my dog, which I never thought would be a thing that would happen, but she's got people all over the world who send comments all the time about how they're going through a rough time, and Roy's videos are some of the only things that keep them happy or people who lost their job and like I went and watched a million Rory videos today to try to cheer myself up. So, it's just so nice that she can make people feel happy," she said.

You can follow Land and Rory's adventures on TikTok, @Rorythefrenchie.