Ugly dog is champ
LOS ANGELES — Princess Abby is missing one eye and a lot of fur. She's got rabbit ears, a camel's back and a kangaroo hop. She has mismatched legs, an inverted floppy front foot and a twisted tail.
Add a pile of personality and some unusual dance moves and the 6-pound Chihuahua easily won the title of World's Ugliest Dog at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma over the weekend. For those very same reasons, she also claimed the heart of owner Kathleen Francis.
"To other people she is ugly, and kids in the neighborhood in the beginning were kind of scared of her," said Francis, 67, who lives in Clearlake, about 110 miles north of San Francisco. "But I think she is beautiful through and through."
Five months ago, Francis gave a neighbor a ride to the vet's office and first saw the dog — flea-infested, malnourished, not long off the streets where she'd been picked up by the local humane society.
"I just loved her," Francis said.
Francis was coming off a few rough patches herself. A few months earlier, she'd finally found a minimum wage job at Kmart working the night shift. Despite a 40-mile commute, she felt lucky to have a job. At the vet's office, she renamed the dog Princess Abby (she's an avid Dear Abby fan) and started making adoption plans.
Francis spotted a flier for the World's Ugliest Dog Contest advertising a free checkup from celebrity vet Karen "Doc" Halligan and signed Princess Abby up.
After three rounds of competition, Princess Abby won $2,600, a modeling contract and $1,000 worth of clothes and doggy gear from contest sponsor House of Dog in Los Angeles, a photo shoot with pet photographer Grace Chon, a trip to New York for appearances on the morning talk shows and a 6-foot trophy.
