BY RANDA GRIFFIN
As a way to commemorate the “World’s Ugliest Dog,” owners Michael Carroll and his wife, Dr. Ginnie Sayre, have commissioned an artist to cast their award-winning dog, Quasi Modo, in bronze.
Since Quasi, a Loxahatchee Groves resident, won the 2015 World’s Ugliest Dog competition, she has turned into a minor celebrity, with her owners at the front of her fan club. Now, they’ve decided to let Quasi live on forever through two bronze sculptures.
Quasi is a mixed-breed dog born with her spine fused together. She’s also missing two vertebrae, which shortens the length of her body and gives her the appearance of having a hump back — hence her name.
Carroll and Sayre rescued Quasi Modo when she was just a year old and have been caring for her ever since. According to Carroll, Quasi was the perfect fit for their home.
“My wife’s a veterinarian, so her whole life is caring for animals. Quasi’s 12 now, and she’s in really great shape,” Carroll said.
In 2014, after persuasion from their friends, the couple decided to enter Quasi into the annual World’s Ugliest Dog Contest in Petaluma, Calif. She did well, but didn’t take the top prize. However, Quasi and her owners were determined to return the following year.
In 2015, Quasi reentered into the competition and won first place, receiving a 6-foot-tall trophy, cash prize and the title “Ugliest Dog in the World.”
“She was a huge hit,” Carroll said. “People from all over the world were calling in during the competition, saying, ‘We want Quasi Modo!’”
After she won the competition, Quasi and her owners made appearances on various television and talk shows, including Good Morning America, Fox & Friends and Jimmy Kimmel Live. “That was something. We definitely had our five minutes of fame with Quasi Modo,” Carroll said.
Now, two years after the competition, Quasi’s owners have decided to immortalize her by commissioning two bronze statues of her in perfect likeness.
Todd Frahm of Stone Cloud Studio in Asheville, N.C., is the artist in charge of portraying Quasi. He started by creating two life-size clay sculptures of her based on photographs he received from Carroll, and is now working on perfecting the sculptures while visiting with Quasi in person.
“Quasi has a lot of unique characteristics that pictures can’t really pull out,” Carroll said. “Some things you have to see in person.”
One of the statues will portray Quasi standing, and the other will portray her while sitting on her back legs to show every angle of her unique physique.
Frahm plans to spend more than 30 hours at the family’s ranch, watching and sculpting Quasi, so he gets every detail perfect. “It’s definitely one of the more unique things I’ve worked on,” he said.
Still held as a local celebrity, Quasi is enjoying her time at her family’s ranch in Loxahatchee Groves. Other animals roam around the ranch, such as roosters, pigs and other dogs, but Carroll said Quasi is definitely the alpha animal. “No matter what size or how dangerous the other animals may be, they always give Quasi her space,” he said.
Carroll and Sayre say that Quasi has had a great impact on their lives. “We’re going to miss her when she’s gone,” Carroll said. “She has meant so much to Ginnie and me, and we want to immortalize her, so bronze was the only way to go.”
Although she won the title “World Ugliest Dog,” Quasi Modo is nothing but loved by those who get to know her. “She’s not an ugly dog, she’s a very unique dog,” Frahm said. “She’s actually really cute and friendly.”
