By EDUARDO MEDINA
Perhaps it was Scooter’s similarity to a shiny black jelly bean that made him the title as champ of the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest.
Or perhaps it was his shock-headed, mohawk-like hair — hairs that stood high in defiance of gravity — that delighted the judges in Petaluma at the Sonoma-Marin Fair.
His tongue hangs loose from his mouth. His hind legs are reversed. His wee and gray tail is wispy.
And he sure is simple to like, the judges concluded.
“In the cutest way possible, he kind of reminds me of a hairy hippopotamus,” said Catherine Liang, among the judges in the competitors on Friday night.
In a contest that promotes the adoption of dogs and commemorates flaw — see the 2022 Chihuahua mix winner with his head askew; the 2019 king, Scamp the Tramp; the 2016 champ, Sweepee Rambo — the judges granted the leading reward this year to a 7-year-old dog that had actually been passed over for his look.
Scooter, a Chinese crested, had actually been brought by a breeder to animal control in Tucson, Arizona, to be euthanized.
But he was eventually rescued and provided a “chance at finding a good home and a fairly normal life,” according to his bio.
“Today Scooter is not only surviving but thriving,” his bio says. “He has no idea that he is any different from any other dog.”
After Scooter was called the champ, his owner, Linda Elmquist, raised him high, his stubborn belly splotched and wrinkled.
Elmquist had actually liked him at very first sight and seemed like she might actually help him.
Scooter utilizes a wheeled cart to walk around more quickly, however he can likewise stabilize and walk with simply his 2 front feet.
“It was a little sad at first to see the condition he was in,” Liang said. “But the more we got to interact with him, we realized how truly adorable and loving that animal is.”
Wheels or no wheels, the crowd at the contest did not care. They clapped for him as he was brought onstage. He wobbled. He winked his dark eyes. He flashed his ever-hanging tongue.
Scooter was, in the estimate of the crowd and the judges, a winner.
Scooter’s triumph won Elmquist a $1,500 reward and a look with the dog on “Today,” the NBC early morning news program, according to the Press Democrat.
Wild Thang, a 6-year-old Chinese Pekingese, took 2nd location and a $1,000 reward, the Press Democrat reported. Harold Bartholomew, a 16-year-old Chihuahua, can be found in 3rd and won $500.
