Bay Ridge dog becomes a celebrity on the internet

A beloved dog that has taken social media platforms by storm hails from Bay Ridge.

Tootie, a seven-year-old miniature Australian shepherd and chihuahua mix, is well recognized on both TikTok and Instagram for her funny memes and photos.

Her owner, Marc Paradise, 34, has lived in Bay Ridge since 2017. A year later, he adopted the dog, who had been rescued from a hoarding situation.

“She was just so sweet but very timid and skidding,” he said. “After a few months of training her in our apartment and just loving her, she really became part of the family.”

He created an Instagram page for Tootie in 2018 and posted photos and memes. The view count for the short videos and posts started off slow. 

“I posted some videos of Tootie pretty much just lying in her bed to (accompany) songs,” he said. “Tootie is very chill and she really isn’t bothered by me putting a costume on or sunglasses. I figured what would be funny would be to follow certain trends to know what is popular, but if a dog was involved.”

He made videos where he used viral audio clips with himself and Tootie having a conversation. He also created green screen videos of her so he can edit in funny backgrounds or have her floating through space. 

“A lot of them will incorporate the music videos to the music and have Tootie flying around,” Paradise said. He also uses funny scenes from late ’90s and early 2000s comedies. 

During the COVID pandemic, the Instagram videos got more popular. He posted videos on TikTok as well. The first video to get over a million views was Tootie head bobbing and tapping to “Sandstorm” by Darude. 

Within a year, Tootie’s TikTok channel had over 100,000 followers. 

“I was really surprised, but also there weren’t really any other dog accounts doing more creative videos with green screens and flying,” he said. “I started to really take things seriously, and I bought the green screen (a screen placed in the background of a video, over which graphics, scenes from other videos and special effects can be placed) and would spend hours editing Tootie into scenes from my favorite movies and music videos.”

The dog’s channels are at the height of its popularity, They currently have 552,000 followers on TikTok and 385,000 on Instagram.

“I still can’t believe how many people each day reach out to us via comments or direct messages,” he said. “They will send Tootie gifts, or just give well wishes and say how much the videos have helped them through tough times or for a good laugh.”

Within months of the posts, Tootie became popular in the neighborhood.

“She has met some fans in our local area,” he said. “Our whole apartment building either follows Tootie on Instagram and TikTok or they have seen me and her on some viral videos. We were walking one day, and a man drove by on a bike and shouting, ‘Hey! Is that Tootie?’”

Despite the success with the channel, Paradise, who is a father to a two-year-old son, recently went through trying times due to his health.

When he was 15 years old, he was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma, which started as a mole on his scalp. The cancer then spread to his lymph nodes in his neck.

“I had a few surgeries to remove the cancer and I was on interferon treatment for a year,” he said.  “Many years passed, and I was declared in remission.”

However, in 2023 he started to get headaches and later found out he had multiple lesions on his brain, six brain tumors and one in his chest cavity. He went for surgery to remove one of the tumors that doctors could access easiest, which helped to relieve symptoms. 

Later, he had months of physical and cognitive therapy to feel more like himself. 

“Once I was healed up from the craniotomy, I met with an oncology team at NYU hospital, and I had a plan to have gamma knife radiation (using precise beams of gamma rays) to help shrink the remaining tumors,” he said. “I go to the hospital once a month for those infusions and have been on immunotherapy for over a year now. The medication seems to be working as it should, and the tumors have shrunk.”

He currently has seven months left to fulfill the two years of therapy. 

During his surgery and treatment, fans of Tootie came together to support Paradise and show him love.

 “The first few months were very up and down, but at this point I have learned to accept my diagnosis and learned to live the best I can under the circumstances,” he said. “I was so overwhelmed by the outpouring of support that I received from friends, family and Tootie followers. My sister organized a GoFundMe page, and it was so touching to see how many people supported my family during this tough time.”