A 9-year-old English bulldog was named the winner of the 2018 World’s Ugliest Dog contest, but only after a judge asked her owner, “That tongue is real?” Zsa Zsa won the title Saturday night at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds in Petaluma, Calif., reports the AP. The dog’s owner, Megan Brainard of Anoka, Minn., will receive $1,500 for Zsa Zsa’s win. Brainard found Zsa Zsa on a pet-finding site about four years ago, according to the contest bio. “She has come so far and she is just so beautiful in my eyes,” says Brainard, per the Press Democrat. “It’s her tongue, and her personality, and her slobber.”
“I shouldn’t be promoting the competition. But she’s awesome,” says the owner of the third-place winner. “She looks like a predator.” Dogs in the annual competition flaunt their imperfections—some have hairless bodies, others have lolling tongues. The dogs and their handlers walk down a red carpet. The dogs are evaluated by a panel of judges. The contestants included a blackhead-covered Chinese Crested-Dachshund mutt, a bulldog mix with excess wrinkly skin, and a Pekingese named Wild Thang. Last year’s winner was a 125-pound gentle giant named Martha—a Neopolitan Mastiff with gas and a droopy face. The contest is in its 30th year.
