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Los Angeles Times wrote: Some may call it a tale of beauty and the beast. But Sam, a 14-year-old pedigreed Chinese crested, and a three-time champ in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest, is the dog of Susie Lockheed's dreams.

Lockheed, 53, enjoys massaging Sam's fleshy, thin, potato-chiplike ears and running her fingers through the small patches of white hair on his head.

She likes kissing Sam's hairless frame, littered with blackheads, brown warts and moles.

Then there's his right eye, left a reddish-purple from cataracts, which stands out from the other, which is a milky white.

"I've never had a dog this much in love with me," Lockheed said. "I really baby Sam, and kiss him a lot. He's a toad [that's] going to turn into a prince."

Sam is one of four hairless dogs that love to groggily lounge on the couch in Lockheed's Santa Barbara home, where she operates a beauty salon.

Lockheed grew up with pets but suffered from allergies that would worsen when she was near furry dogs.

She said her life changed when a friend gave her TatorTot, a Chinese crested and Chihuahua mix, for her 40th birthday. "I never had a dog I could cuddle with before," she said.

Later, Lockheed would adopt dogs Tinkerbelle and Sam and would buy PixieNoodle, all hairless.

Her friends agree on the "cuteness" factor of the other dogs. Sam is a different story.

Though Lockheed had wanted her other dogs, she had to be persuaded to take in the world's ugliest dog.

He had already been rejected by an adoption agency, which deemed him too homely for any home it knew. Sam's former owner, who was moving to a place where dogs weren't allowed, was desperate, Lockheed said.

"He didn't look so good then, but he's looking worse now," Lockheed said, adding that in recent years Sam has gone blind and suffered illness. "There's something quite noble about Sam. Even though he's unattractive, he expects to be treated like royalty."

A year after Lockheed took in the dog without a home, she suffered a relapse of thyroid cancer, with which she was first diagnosed as a teenager.

After drinking a radioactive iodine treatment, Lockheed had to stay at home for five days. Lockheed was able to keep one dog with her, and she picked Sam. The two enjoyed lounging and watching television. Sam never left her except to visit the side yard through his doggy door. The two have been inseparable ever since. Now Sam cries when Lockheed isn't around.

"He made a grave situation really fun. I think dogs are a gift from God. They don't care if you're having a bad hair day," Lockheed said.

But as the only male dog in the household, Sam was sometimes treated as an outcast by the other dogs, which were jealous of the attention Lockheed lavished on him. He was even blocked from the couch by the females.

Then in 2002, Lockheed saw a Jay Leno show featuring the world's ugliest dog from the Sonoma-Marin Fair, which has held the contest since 1989. She knew Sam would be a natural.

Sam won, and has taken the fair's title every year since, including last month. Lockheed plans to enter Sam in a similar contest in March in Del Mar.

Sometimes having an ugly dog has its pitfalls. Lockheed's friend Rebecca Player said Lockheed was trying to console a guy she was dating by telling him, "You're a very attractive man." He responded, "Why should I listen to you? You tell Sam he's beautiful."

Lockheed spends $1,000 a year on her dogs, buying them bottled water, always keeping the heat at 70 degrees or above, fixing home-cooked meals for them, and letting them sleep with her under the sheets and her goose down blanket.

Lockheed closely watches Sam, who must take a number of pills each day to combat heart problems and kidney disease. To coax him to take his medicine, Lockheed slips it into lean buffalo meat, tasty cheese balls, French toast or flan.

"I think it's amazing how she can care for such a hideous dog," said Lockheed's friend Susie Weller, adding that the dogs "are kind of like her children."

A former actress who once tried to launch her career in Los Angeles, Lockheed says she is now a proud canine stage mom. Her Web site has drawn more than 2 million hits since its creation in July.

She plans to hire an agent for Sam to help him appear in films and commercials, but she's up against time.

"I worry about [Sam's health] terribly," Lockheed said.

"I just feel he's like on borrowed time, and every day is just a blessing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, not just for luck, but because I love him so much."

HOW DID HE GET THAT NAME?
Some ugly facts about Susie Lockheed and Sam:

- Lockheed met her fiance in February 2004 after he saw a photograph of Lockheed and Sam posted on the Internet. He e-mailed her, asking "What is that?"

- Sam's name is derived from the biblical story of Samson and Delilah. "Samson's strength is in his hair," Lockheed said. "We know how much strength Sam has in his hair," she said jokingly. Sam is a Chinese crested hairless.

- Sam's Web site is http://www.samugliestdog.com