Obituary: 'Ugly dog' Sam

We try (and almost always succeed) to find every pet attractive. A pet's capacity to provide unconditional love makes even the most homely of them a supermodel in our eyes.

But then there was Sam. Sam was... well, let's just say it: Ugly.

We're not being mean here--he was famously ugly, and his ugliness earned him a title bestowed upon few animals: He was a true, bona fide pet celebrity.

The purebred Chinese crested hairless won the ugliest animal contest at the 2003 Sonoma-Marin Fair in California and went on to make appearances on TV in Japan, on radio in New Zealand, and in Britain's Daily Mirror tabloid. He even stayed in better hotels than we can afford and met another guy with famously bad hair--Donald Trump.

Unfortunately, Sam has passed away. The pooch with the hairless body, crooked teeth and sparse tuft of hair atop his 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."

In our opinion, the world always has room for a few more Sams.

Read more about the life and times of Sam on CNN.