With her cataracts, lack of teeth, lolling tongue and shock of greying blonde hair – not to mention her showbiz pedigree – it is easy to see why the canine’s owner decided to name Miss Ellie after the Dallas matriarch. But the Chinese Hairless was not just an ugly face. She was a tireless charity campaigner, raising over $100,000 for the local humane society.

So, farewell then, Miss Ellie. The world is in mourning. Dogs’ homes across the globe fell eerily quiet yesterday, as they held a minute’s silence. “She was so bubbly and had so much to live for,” a bull terrier might have said. “When she scampered into a room, she lit up the faces of peculiar human beings who for some strange reason derived pleasure from the sight of a blind dog that looked a bit like a gremlin.”

Miss Ellie will be cremated,  It is not yet known if the “Ugliest Dog” competition’s organisers, Animal Planet, will postpone the contest as a mark of respect. She leaves an owner, Dawn Goehring, who touchingly took the canine to her own wedding, wearing a white dress and veil.

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War on the cheap