Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Joe Golder, Agency: Newsflash
This cute dog called Rocky has become an online celebrity for his habit of climbing on top of the wall and staying there all day long, resulting in 10 years of people photographing him and even US singer Halsey has reportedly now posed with the popular pooch.
Rocky has been watching out on the happenings of the neighbourhood of Kuzguncuk in the district of Uskudar in Istanbul’s Asian side in north-western Turkey since it was bought over a decade ago.
But he became internationally famous when a netizen shared a photo of Rocky watching the street from the same garden fence that was originally taken in 2011 and then repeated this year in 2020.
Many other local residents said they had also seen the pooch resting on the fence and started to share their own snaps of Rocky, resulting in tourists specifically going to the area in order to see him and photographing him themselves
His fame then quickly spread beyond Kuzguncuk, and even American singer Halsey visited the neighbourhood during her visit to Istanbul to especially take a snap with Rocky.
After the singer shared the photo on social media, Rocky started to attract even more attention from around the world.
The dog’s owner Hayal Dogan said: “He has quite a reputation! Interest in Rocky continues and tourists even come here to Kuzguncuk to see him.
“We first got Rocky 11 years ago. He was just a two-month-old puppy at the time.
“He started to climb up on the fence when he was big enough, and he likes to watch the street from there.
“Rocky loves people. I think he is a great night-watchman.”
However, not all the attention Rocky receives is positive. Dogan said: “Some people throw chicken bones to him, but they are really bad for him. People should show love, but not in a way that could cause harm to him.”
The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
