Miss Ellie wasn’t just about being an ugly dog however, as she campaigned to raise awareness for rescue dogs and to raise money for their care. Miss Ellie herself was a rescue dog, as she had been abandoned at the age of 7. She was rescued by her owner Dawn Goehring and given a new home with Dawn’s 13 dogs, all rescue dogs.

Miss Ellie planned to compete in this year’s contest for the World’s Ugliest Dog, being held in California’s Petaluma at the Sonoma-Marin Fair, and her absence will be a big miss for the competition.

As part of her fundraising efforts, Miss Ellie was the mascot behind the bid to raise $1 million in aide of the Sevier County Humane Society. The money was to be used to build a new animal shelter for rescue dogs. The shelter currently being used houses around 5,000 animals each year, even though it had only been designed to house 1,000.

Miss Ellie was 17 years old when she died.

Nancy is a 6 month old Chinese Crested pooch and her wedding is planned to take place at the Foxdenton Hall in Chadderton next Sunday. The vicar is booked, her wedding dress is ready and even refreshments are planned, but they are still missing a dog groom!

This wedding might be completely barking, but it has been planned as part of a fun day by Nancy’s owner Sarah Ogden to raise money for Christies. Any dogs who want to watch or take part in the dog show can compete for the ‘most eligible bachelor’ award where young stud dogs can strut to win Nancy’s paw and a walkies down the aisle.

Sarah, a 39 year old mobile dog groomer, said: “This is the first time I’ve done anything like this. It’s taken over my life for the past two months. As we are holding a fun day and dog show I thought it would be a nice idea to have a doggy wedding. We’ve got the bride, now all we need is a groom. We’ve got a trainee vicar called Gareth Price who will be holding the ceremony.

“Entrants are asked to wear groom outfits then our judge will decide on the winner. We are also on the lookout for bridesmaids.”

If you don’t want to marry off your eligible young stud dog, there are other dog show categories you can enter including the OAP category, the waggiest tail, the fancy dress and the best six legs competition.

For the humans, there is a BBQ, tombola, a bouncy castle, face painting and an auction, so there should be something for you too. There are human and canine prizes available such as makeovers, dog beds and dog hampers.

Entry is free if you want to go and the afternoon runs from 12 – 4pm. There is a £1.50 fee to enter your dog in the dog show. For further details, ring Sarah on 07940 908772.

Mugly is a shih tzu-Chinese crested cross breed and escaped from his owner’s home.  He did have just the one tuft of hair on his neck,  but the mindless youths tore it from his neck, hit and punched him and even ripped off one of his eyebrows.

Mugly’s owner, Bev Nicholson, told the media:

“You just can’t think why these people would do such a horrible thing. It’s horrible because he loves people so much he probably thought it was just a game and all they were interested in was hurting him.  He was really shaken and cowered in to me when he got back.  He was swollen and bruised around his face and rear end.”

A passer-by rescued Mugly when he recognised him from Bev’s posters pleading for help finding the missing dog.  Police are investigating and appealing for anybody who knows anything to come forward with any information to locate the vicious youths.

Bev added: “They had pulled out a little tuft of hair he had on his neck. It was the only hair he had and they even managed to take off one of his eyebrows.”

Mindless violence such as this, whether aimed at dogs or people, needs to be stopped.  Anybody with information should contact the local police.

Pictured here is Pabst, a four year old boxer-mix breed with a very prominent under-bite.  Pabst was a rescue dog taken in by his owner Miles Egstad.

The prize awarded for being crowned the world’s ugliest dog was $1,600 (£1,000) prize money, some pet suppliers and a dog modelling contract from House of Dog.  Egstad looked very proud of his dog – although we imagine he doesn’t agree with the ‘dogs look like their owners theory’.

Most ugly dog competitions do seem to be won by Chinese Crested dogs so it comes as little surprised to find that the winner of the pedigree category was a former world’s ugliest dog champion, a fifteen year old blind Chinese Crested Hairless dog called Miss Ellie.  Pabst beat the Chinese Crested Hairless dogs to the ultimate title this year though.  I wonder if dog owners will be vying to use Pabst as a stud dog now?

Pictures courtesy of World’s Ugliest Dog Contest, Sonoma-Marin Fair.

Gus is a Chinese Crested dog with one eye and three legs, and was crowned the winner of the world’s ugliest dog contest in June this year. Upon winning the title, Gus’ owner said that the prize money would be used to help Gus’ radiation treatment for his skin Cancer.

Jeanenne Teed rescued Gus as a puppy, as he was being kept inside a crate in a garage. He lost his eye in a fight with a feline foe, and had one of his legs amputated after developing a skin tumour.

The Chinese Crested dog doesn’t actually hail from China; they originated in the United States back in the 1920’s. In the last seven years the breed has dominated the world’s ugliest dog competition, winning all seven.