- Staff
- #1
- 25,905
- 10,784
Yoda the chihuahau crowned World's Ugliest Dog
With her scruffy tufts of wiry hair, protruding tongue and gangly legs, Yoda hardly looks like a champion show dog. Unless, that is, the competition is for the World's Ugliest Dog title.
The 14-year old Chinese-crested Chihuahau mix was awarded that hotly-contested honour by judges in California.
Yoda's owner Terry Schumacher fled when she first encountered the two-pound dog abandoned behind an apartment building in America, convinced that the animal was a rat.
But on closer inspection, she realised the diminutive ball of hair and limbs was actually a dog.
Miss Schumacher took her home and named her new pet after the pint-sized crumpled-faced Jedi master from the Star Warsfilms, to whom the dog bears a striking canine resemblance.
And on Friday, she hugged and kissed Yoda after she won the title as a first-time entrant in the 23-year-old show at the Sonoma-Marin Fair.
A variety of other near-hairless, toothy and injured dogs were also put through their steps by their loving owners.
Eye disfigurements were a common characteristic.
Other competitors included last year's winner, a one-eyed Chihuahua named Princess Abby, a blind 15-year-old pug called Hercules and a crowd favourite, Handsome Hector, whose owner has created a Facebook page and blog for the bald one-eyed mongrel's fans.
"Handsome Hector, aka Hecki, is, in his own opinion, devastatingly handsome," reads one proud entry.
With her scruffy tufts of wiry hair, protruding tongue and gangly legs, Yoda hardly looks like a champion show dog. Unless, that is, the competition is for the World's Ugliest Dog title.
The 14-year old Chinese-crested Chihuahau mix was awarded that hotly-contested honour by judges in California.
Yoda's owner Terry Schumacher fled when she first encountered the two-pound dog abandoned behind an apartment building in America, convinced that the animal was a rat.
But on closer inspection, she realised the diminutive ball of hair and limbs was actually a dog.
Miss Schumacher took her home and named her new pet after the pint-sized crumpled-faced Jedi master from the Star Warsfilms, to whom the dog bears a striking canine resemblance.
And on Friday, she hugged and kissed Yoda after she won the title as a first-time entrant in the 23-year-old show at the Sonoma-Marin Fair.
A variety of other near-hairless, toothy and injured dogs were also put through their steps by their loving owners.
Eye disfigurements were a common characteristic.
Other competitors included last year's winner, a one-eyed Chihuahua named Princess Abby, a blind 15-year-old pug called Hercules and a crowd favourite, Handsome Hector, whose owner has created a Facebook page and blog for the bald one-eyed mongrel's fans.
"Handsome Hector, aka Hecki, is, in his own opinion, devastatingly handsome," reads one proud entry.