The Ugly Dog

Courtesy of Scott Anderson/Courier-Post. Pub Dec. 14 in South Jersey.

Karen Quigley had mixed emotions when learning her part-Chinese crested, part-chihuahua mutt was crowned the "World's Ugliest Dog" in June.
It wasn't because her bug-eyed baby was receiving the biggest backhanded petting known to the dog world; Quigley knew Elwood's ego was bigger.
The honor just wasn't in her manuscript.
"What am I going to do now?" the Sewell resident asked.
Before leaving for the annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest in Petaluma, Calif., Quigley spent nine months producing and self-financing her debut children's book, "Everyone Loves Elwood," a true story originally based on the dog's second-place finish in the 2006 ugliest mutt category.
"The story was about him not winning," Quigley said. "Not winning."
The bespeckled dog with the funny tongue lapped up a tidal wave of media requests, appearing on "The Today Show," CNN, "The View," and countless other programs before returning home with Quigley to a project previously estimated as 90 percent complete.
With the help of longtime friend and professional writer Loren Spiotta-DiMare, Quigley tweaked, appended and updated the rough draft without changing its message: Beauty may be in the eye of the leash holder, but acceptance comes from within.
Just don't expect Elwood to turn into a swan.
"He is what he is," said Quigley said. "He knows he's very handsome."

By way of his owner, the 2-year-old dog -- whose tongue wags more than his curly tail -- lends his celebrity to help support a number of animal charities, often drawing comparisons to Yoda of "Star Wars" fame for his pointy ears, to E.T. for his bug eyes, and to anyone sporting a white mohawk.
"I think he was always proud of who he was," Quigley said. "I think now he just gets a lot more attention because of it."
But Elwood didn't always receive so much attention.
Before Quigley gave him a final home, Elwood passed through two other owners: a breeder who was going to euthanize the unwanted, 4-week-old pup and then a woman who took in more animals than she could provide for.
Two days after taking in Elwood, one of Quigley's eight dogs, the proud owner got her first sense of public reaction when she carried the 6-pound canine into a Sprint store.
"What is that?" the onlookers asked.
Of all those squinting, only a little boy "didn't look at Elwood like he was a creature from outer space" and approached the dog.
"He laid the most tender kiss on this little dog's head," said Quigley, who sometimes even holds the pocket pooch while washing dishes.
"That was my first inkling that kids responded to him way different than adults," she said.
Although she recognized an audience existed for Elwood early on, Quigley only considered self-publishing a children's book in the midst of her first meeting with Spiotta-DiMare.
Quigley tried to push the pen over to Spiotta-DiMare, who, in turn, pushed it right back.
"You write it," Spiotta-DiMare told her. "You've lived his story. You write it and I'll mentor you through it."
Quigley chronicled the duo's journey into fame, but, to fully capture this pug's mug, she knew it would require either thousands of words or some pictures worth them.
So Quigley spent two months auditioning more than a dozen artists, enduring Martian-like exaggerations of Elwood and doubting the book's release. Then she called Kay Klotzbach, an art professor at Camden County College and a fellow Greyhound Friend of New Jersey.
Klotzbach, who was featured in the Courier-Post for her Greyhound art exhibit, was hesitant to commit initially as she had never illustrated a children's book before, but had to after seeing Elwood online.
"I thought he was the most interesting dog I've ever seen," said Klotzbach, a Lindenwold resident. "To be honest, I didn't think he was ugly. I thought he was cute, in an E.T. kind-of-way."
From May to August, Klotzbach spent time snapping shots of Elwood, sketching a storyboard and two to three preliminary drawings for each of the book's 17 illustrations.
Klotzbach got to know her subject as well as one could, right down to his chronic shaking and phantom body noises, and still can't quite understand Elwood.
"Dogs have standardized features. Some have bigger eyes, bigger ears, but there's no dog that looks like Elwood," Klotzbach said. "That's what made him so entertaining to draw."
Quigley said it was these quirks, along with his disarming charm, that made Elwood not only a crowd favorite, but the judges' top dog too.
And as it turned out, Quigley said Elwood couldn't have written the script better himself.
"Had he won (the first time), the book might be a little different," she said. "This is the way it was supposed to be."

The first printing of "Everyone Loves Elwood" -- about 5,000 copies -- arrived at Quigley's home on Dec. 7 and can be ordered through the Web site www.everyoneloveselwood.com or throughout Elwood's local book tour. The 40-page, hardcover book retails for $15 before shipping or tax with a portion of the proceeds benefiting charities of homeless and abused animals.
Quigley may have an additional loan to pay off, a 10-year-old car and eight dogs that need to go out, but she's already written her storybook ending.
"Whatever happens with it I'm so glad we did it," she said. "Even if I have this just for myself and I have to go back and work part-time jobs at Wal-Mart or Wawa to pay off the loan, I'm just so happy with it."