RIP: Yoda, at 15

Yoda, winner of the 2011 World's Ugliest Dog contest, passed away Saturday at the age of 15.

Proud owner Terry Schumacher initially mistook the Chinese crested-Chihuahua mix for a rat when she found her abandoned behind an apartment building. 

"I will miss her funny little ways," Schumacher said in an email to the Hanford Sentinel. "Her memories will live on forever."

Yoda took home the coveted World’s Ugliest Dog title at the 23rd iteration of the world-famous event, hosted annually at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma, California.

[sentinel / photo: ap.]