Miss Ellie Proves That Blind Dogs Can Finish First!

Earlier today at the 2009 World's Ugliest Dog contest, Miss Ellie - a blind 15 year old Chinese Crested - proved that disabled dogs can finish first! Miss Ellie's imperfections, including her cataracts, lack of teeth and abundance of warts, earned her the blue ribbon in the pedigree class.

She traveled all the way from Tennessee to California with her human, Dawn Goehring, to compete in the contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair. Dawn has 13 other rescue pups at home, and she's eager to to use Miss Ellie as a "spokesmodel for rescue dogs of the 'not so cute' kind." Dawn also told reporters "Miss Ellie hopes that people get the message that there are plenty of wonderful rescue dogs out there just waiting for a chance." Our sentiments exactly!

The World's Ugliest Dog Contest is a renowned celebration of "imperfect" dogs of all stripes. Last year's grand prize winner was Gus, a one-eyed tripod who suffered several bouts of skin cancer (sadly, Gus passed away last November). Our blind friend, Xino, took third place.

Although Miss Ellie didn't win the coveted championship title of World's Ugliest Dog (Pabst, a boxer mix with an unmistakable under-bite took the top honors this year), her status as the winner of the pedigree category is definitely a victory to celebrate. Three cheers for Miss Ellie and blind dogs everywhere!