Meet Scooter, the winner of this year's World's Ugliest Dog contest

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/26/ [login to see] /ugliest-dog-contest-scooter-winner
Scooter isn't what many would call a conventional beauty.

The 7-year-old Chinese Crested dog, with reversed hind legs, is nearly bald but for a shock of white wispy hairs.

But it's those kinds of peculiarities that endeared the pooch to judges at the "World's Ugliest Dog" contest in Petaluma, Calif., where he took home the grand prize on Friday.

Scooter's pink, wayward tongue may be drooping from his mouth. The contest's title, however, is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. The nearly 50-year-old event is held to show that these dogs are uniquely beautiful by celebrating "the imperfections that make all dogs special," and to advocate for adoption.

"From the second he sits his hairless little booty and backward legs on your lap, you feel his warm, huggable power to change the meaning of the word ugly," said NBC host Gadi Schwartz, one of the competition's judges, in an interview with Today.