(WTVO) — A 17-year-old rescue dog from Arizona has been named the “world’s ugliest dog.”
The Chinese Crested Mr. Happy Face won 1st place at the Sonoma-Marin Fair’s “World’s Ugliest Dog” pageant in Petaluma, California, according to the Huffington Post. Janeda Banelly, Mr. Happy Face’s owner, said that the animal shelter where she adopted him had a few warnings about the pooch.
“I was warned [he] could be inbred because he was so ugly. The shelter staff tried to prepare me for what I was about to see,” Banelly said in a statement. “I saw a creature who was indeed old, needed a second chance and deserved to be loved.”
Banelly adopted the dog despite the shelter’s warnings, and she quickly discovered that he was the dog for her.
“When I first met him, he was the happiest creature that I had ever met,” Banelly said. “He hobbled up to me and chose me. I vowed that day, he would be so loved that he would never remember how awful his previous life had been.”
Mr. Happy Face had been rescued from a hoarder’s house where he was abused and neglected, according to Banelly. The veterinarian said that due to various health problems, Mr. Happy Face might have only been alive for weeks after he was adopted.
“Love, kindness and mommy kisses have helped him defy the anticipated short life that we all expected him to have with our family,” Banelly said.
The senior pooch’s favorite activities include “being fearlessly adorable, invoking his elder privilege amongst his 4 legged and three legged fur siblings and eating stinky things,” according to Banelly.
“Mr. Happy Face’s goals are to have a longer tongue than Gene Simmons and a more dashing snarl than Billy Idol,” she said.
This year’s runner-up for “world’s ugliest dog” was Wild Thang, a puppy mill survivor.