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Update November 22, 2005: SANTA BARBARA, California (AP) -- Sam, the dog whose ugliness earned him TV appearances, limousine rides and even a meeting with millionaire Donald Trump, has died, the Santa Barbara News-Press reported Tuesday.
The pooch with the hairless body, crooked teeth and sparse tuft of hair atop his knobby head died Friday, just short of his 15th birthday, said his owner, Susie Lockheed.
"I don't think there'll ever be another Sam," she said, adding wryly, "Some people would think that's a good thing."
 SANTA
BARBARA — Some may call it a tale of beauty and
the beast. But Sam, a 14-year-old pedigreed Chinese
crested, and a three-time champ in the World's Ugliest
Dog Contest, is the dog of Susie Lockheed's dreams.
Lockheed, 53, enjoys massaging Sam's
fleshy, thin, potato-chip ears and running her fingers
through the small patches of white hair on his head.
She likes kissing Sam's hairless frame, littered with
blackheads, brown warts and moles. Even his hindquarters
have a large hernia lump.
Then there's his right eye, left a reddish-purple
from cataracts, which stands out from the other, which
is a milky white.
"I've never had a dog this much
in love with me," Lockheed said. "I really
baby Sam, and kiss him a lot. He's a toad [that's] going
to turn into a prince."
Sam is one of four hairless dogs that
love to groggily lounge on the couch in Lockheed's Santa
Barbara home, where she operates a beauty salon.
Lockheed grew up in Palos Verdes Estates
with household pets and suffered from allergies that
would worsen when she was near furry dogs.
She said her life changed when a friend
gave her TatorTot, a Chinese crested and Chihuahua mix,
for her 40th birthday. "I never had a dog I could
cuddle with before," she said.
Later, Lockheed would adopt dogs Tinkerbelle
and Sam and would buy PixieNoodle, all hairless dogs.
Her friends approve the "cuteness" factor
of the other dogs. Sam is a different story.
Though Lockheed had wanted her other
dogs, she had to be persuaded to take in the world's
ugliest dog. He had already been rejected by an adoption
agency, which deemed him too homely for any home they
knew. Sam's former owner, who was moving to a place
where dogs weren't allowed, was desperate, Lockheed
said.
"He didn't look so good then, but
he's looking worse now," Lockheed said, adding
that in recent years Sam has gone blind and suffered
illness. "There's something quite noble about Sam.
Even though he's unattractive, he expects to be treated
like royalty."
A year after Lockheed took in the dog
without a home, she suffered a relapse of thyroid cancer,
with which she was first diagnosed as a teenager.
After drinking a radioactive iodine
treatment, Lockheed had to stay at home for five days,
and her entire room had to be covered in plastic —
even the telephone. Friends had to leave food by her
door because of the radiation. But she wasn't alone;
Lockheed was able to keep one dog with her, and she
picked Sam.
The two enjoyed lounging and watching
television. Sam never left her except to visit the side
yard through his doggy door. The two have been inseparable
ever since. Now Sam cries when Lockheed isn't around.
"He made a grave situation really
fun. I think dogs are a gift from God. They don't care
if you're having a bad hair day," Lockheed said.
But as the only male dog in the household,
Sam was sometimes treated as an outcast by the other
dogs, who were jealous of the attention Lockheed lavished
on him. He was even blocked from the couch by the females.
Then in 2002, Lockheed saw a Jay Leno
show featuring the world's ugliest dog from the Sonoma-Marin
Fair, which has held the contest since 1989. She knew
Sam would be a natural.
To prepare, she skipped Sam's usual
treatment with mild lactic acid lotion, which clears
off dead skin cells, for a few days and let his nails
grow out.
"You don't practice, and you certainly
don't groom," Lockheed said. "It's the opposite
of preparing for Westminster," the big New York
dog show.
Sam won, and has taken the fair's title
every year since, including last month. Lockheed plans
to enter Sam in a similar contest in March in Del Mar. |
