This year’s winner of the Beautiful Bulldog Contest is Iowa Falls rescue pup Flora
By KCCI Web Staff
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DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — Flora didn’t just win a contest Sunday afternoon at Drake University — she completed a comeback story worthy of a standing ovation.
Inside the Knapp Center, surrounded by cheering fans and a parade of wrinkly faces and wagging tails, the annual Beautiful Bulldog Contest crowned a new queen. Flora, a rescue English bulldog from Iowa Falls, stole the spotlight — and hearts — as she was named this year’s winner.
Her owners, Nicole Gleason and Augie Wachter, say they had a feeling.
“I’m just proud as I can be,” Gleason said, beaming. “I just had a gut feeling. We were kind of giving her all the good vibes about it.”
Flora’s journey to the crown is anything but ordinary. Rescued from a puppy mill, she arrived in her new home with a lot to learn about the world.
“She’d never seen grass or the stairs before,” Gleason said.
Now, she rules the house.
“Her brothers that she has at home bow down to her now,” Gleason said, jokingly.
And it’s easy to see why. Despite missing some teeth — the result of gnawing on her cage in her early days — Flora’s charm, resilience and unmistakable bulldog swagger carried her straight to the top.
“It’s a perfect Cinderella story,” Gleason said.
Augie Wachter agreed: “It couldn’t have turned out any better for her.”
Flora wasn’t the only crowd favorite. Pickles of Urbandale waddled away with first runner-up honors and the “Bulldog Spirit” Award, proving personality counts just as much as looks. Carl, of Terril, claimed second runner-up, earning plenty of applause of his own.
But in a contest full of lovable competitors, it was Flora’s story — from hardship to headliner — that defined the day.
From never touching grass to taking center stage, this bulldog’s glow-up is officially complete.
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