Hairless Dog Wins Ugly Contests Paws Down, but Family Loves Him

You talk ugly and you talk about Kriket. In fact, he’s already won two ugly contests.

“Each year I think he gets a little uglier,” said Merydith Roesel, 24, of Brea. “He actually was born cute and grew ugly.”

But Kriket, a purebred Chinese Crescent hairless dog with skin that feels like that of an elephant, doesn’t lack affection despite his obvious shortcomings in the looks department.

“It was really cute when my Dad (Reed Garfield of Brea) bought it for the family,” said Roesel, now married and living in a nearby Brea home, “and it got a lot of attention at first.” She said they all (four sisters and a brother) still give it a lot of loving, “but we should have known better how it would turn out.”

“The way the ad was written was even different,” she continued, “because it asked if anyone wanted a dog that looked like a horse that had blue skin and was hairless.” Garfield bought it 10 years ago for $100.

The dog was originally called “Carrot” because it had a splotch of carrot-colored hair on its head, but the family changed the name when the hair turned a light yellow.

“He’s a nice dog,” she added, “but I’m not loving and kissing him all the time.” Her husband, Paul Roesel, 26, agrees that while the dog is truly ugly, “it does have its good points. It doesn’t shed any hair because it doesn’t have any, and it’s a good watchdog because it barks all the time.”

Kriket stays outside with another house dog, a springer spaniel named Tilley, who apparently feels that looks are only skin deep. They have become tight friends.

The Roesels entered Kriket in a Fullerton community newspaper ugly dog contest and won handily over 20 dogs and also took first place in a television ugly dog contest, receiving a basket of bones and a certificate.

Besides Kriket, the Garfield children have also kept snakes, rabbits, chinchillas and ducks. “They were all better looking than Kriket,” Merydith said.

Principal William D. Wingo will host a Good Behavior Sundae Party on Feb. 6 at A. G. Currie Intermediate School in Tustin for students who haven’t had a discipline warning in the first semester. About 250 of the school’s 500 students will get an invite.

Never mind what you think, John G. Gardner, 49, of Anaheim Hills is running a G-rated campaign in his effort to set the world record for lap sitting. So far he has written documentation from 8,005 women who have sat on his lap (“everyone but an Eskimo and a nun”) and representing every state in America and 62 foreign countries.

Gardner, a fifth-grade teacher at Post Elementary School in Garden Grove, is far ahead of everyone else because he’s the only one doing lap sitting and hopes someday to get into the Guiness Book of World Records. He started collecting lap sitters on Feb. 1, 1975.

“They are reluctant to put the record in the book because of the lack of competition,” he said, noting that besides the self-proclaimed lap sitting title, he holds about 30 others, including high altitude (a stewardess at 35,000 feet) and having 10 women sit on his lap 312 times each.

Gardner had hoped his book, “The Iron Lap,” would get him some renown and possibly some product endorsements. So far only 20 books have been sold, and he hasn’t received any endorsement offers.

“This all began as a dream” said Gardner, who smartly had his wife, Jean Gardner, 42, sign her name first in his lap sitting record book. “Maybe someday someone will challenge me, and I’ll make the record book.”

Of all the prizes he won on a television game show, John Houlihan, 36, of Tustin figures the giant handmade rocking horse valued at $1,000 is one of his least favorite, although the $500 in dance lessons and a $200 brass wine opener rank close.

“I guess you would have to call the rocking horse the black sheep of the prizes I won,” said Houlihan, a painting contractor, who doesn’t watch the game shows on television unless he plans on auditioning as a contestant.

To pick up some cash, Houlihan is trying to sell the rocking horse for $550 through a newspaper ad, but he has set his sights higher. “I’m going to audition Feb. 4 for the $1 Million Chance game show,” he said.

Acknowledgments--Placentia Mayor Pro Tem Art Newton was named Costa Mesa Reserve Officer of the Year, the same award he won in 1980 from Placentia before changing police departments to avoid a conflict in his council role.