Yoda the 'world's ugliest dog' dies aged 15

 

view gallery VIEW GALLERY

A 15-year-old Chinese crested and Chihuahua mix dog dubbed 'The World's Ugliest' has died, her owner announced today.

Yoda, winner of the 2011 World's Ugliest Dog contest held annually in California, died in her sleep on Saturday.

The prize winning pet shot to fame following the contest and achieved minor celebrity status, appearing on a number of television programs - and even featuring in a makeover show.

Terry Schumacher, her owner, had initially mistaken Yoda for a rat when she found her abandoned - but the dog went on to pick up a $1000 (£638) prize and a trophy 15 times her size after winning the contest last June.

Vicki DeArmon, producer of the contest, said Yoda will keep the title of 'World's Ugliest Dog' until a new ugliest dog is crowned in June.

Yoda only weighed 1.8lbs (0.8kg) and had experienced a rough life before being rescued by her owner after being found behind an apartment building.

Terry Schumacher told the Hanford Sentinel that she will miss "her funny little ways", but was "comforted knowing she will be joining my Mom and Dad, who loved her so much. Her memories will live on forever."

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Property search
News in pictures
World news in pictures
Life & Style blogs

Your chance to live in Winnie the Pooh’s home

Plus London's buy-to-let hotspots and a new property portal

How can the mortgage market recovery be helped?

Guest post by Richard Sexton, business development director of e.surv chartered surveyors

Where do most millionaires live in the UK?

Plus lateral thinking and living on London's waterways

       

Day In a Page

Andrew Mitchell: 'It's no good feeling hard done by'

Andrew Mitchell: 'It's no good feeling hard done by'

In his first interview since 'plebgate', the former Chief Whip opens up just enough to concede that, in politics, you have to take the rough with the smooth

Johnny Marr talks relationships and reunions

He's worked with Modest Mouse, the Pet Shop Boys and Beck, to name a few, and recently released his first solo album. So why, wonders Johnny Marr, do people still hark on about The Smiths?
Corruption and the FCO: Blue skies, white sands, dark clouds

Corruption and the FCO: Blue skies, white sands, dark clouds

Special report: Met police call for criminal inquiry into former diplomat's Cayman Islands rule
Fallen angel: Winona Ryder on bouncing back from her decade in the wilderness

Fallen angel: Winona Ryder bounces back

She owned the 1990s... but then she disappeared. Now, Ms Ryder is back with quite the bang in her latest role, as the wife of a notorious real-life Mob hitman.
Roman Polanski shakes Cannes Film Festival

Roman Polanski shakes Cannes Film Festival

The director's new film, 'Venus in Fur', is one of the raciest on offer
Rev Richard Coles: 'I don’t have any concerns that God is cross with me for being gay and eventually the Church won’t either'

Rev Richard Coles on the Church and homosexuality

The mellifluous, erudite and witty Coles is the nation's most pop-culture-friendly priest
'Baghdad likes to live from crisis to crisis': Civil war looms in Iraq

Patrick Cockburn: Civil war looms in Iraq

The governor of Kirkuk - one of the country's most violent but successful provinces - fears the worst
Written on the body: Tattooists at pains to point out their artistic credentials

Written on the body

Tattooists at pains to point out their artistic credentials
Conquering Everest: 60 facts about the world's tallest mountain

Conquering Everest: 60 facts about the world's tallest mountain

The IoS marks the sixtieth anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first reaching the peak of the highest mountain on Earth
A new, and irreversible, Dust Bowl looms

Rupert Cornwell: A new, and irreversible, Dust Bowl looms

The destructive power of tornadoes will be as nothing once the Great Plains' vast underground water reserve dries up
Every creature's needless death diminshes us all

Philip Hoare: Every creature's needless death diminishes us all

A 60 per cent decline in our national species should alarm us, yet few of us act. But to mind more about animals would reflect well on society
Killing with kindness: Burma's religious battleground - and the monks at the heart of it

Killing with kindness: Burma's religious battleground

Six years ago, the world cheered the monks behind Burma’s Saffron Revolution. Now, a horrific new eruption of religious slaughter is being blamed on a 'Buddhist Bin Laden'.
Let's take it outside: Bill Granger's Bank Holiday feast

Let's take it outside: Bill Granger's Bank Holiday feast

You can’t always depend on the weather – but you can avoid the pitfalls of the British barbecue by preparing an elaborate outdoor feast indoors ahead of time...
The Calvin report: Stirring Champions League final shows how far English game must advance

The Calvin report

Stirring Champions League final shows how far English game must advance
10 big questions for the British & Irish Lions to answer

10 big questions for the British & Irish Lions to answer

Warren Gatland's squad fly Down Under aiming to do justice to the expectations – and hoping the Wallabies stay in the pub