Paw Nation

We've gone through all the great entries and narrowed the cute and cuddly choices down to 10 dogs and 10 cats. Now we need your help picking the cutest pooch in the Paw Nation. (Go here for the cutest cat voting.) The grand-prize winners receive a trip to a pet friendly destination (go here for all the great prize details and rules) and semi-finalists receive a pair of movie tickets to go to a hot summer flick (perhaps "Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore").

To choose a dog, all you need to do is click on "vote" under your fave in the two photos shown and then hit the "next round" link when it appears to go on to vote on the following sets of photos. Each round pairs two randomly selected pets, so don't be concerned if you see the same sweet face more than once!

To see the pooch that's currently the crowd favorite, click on "view leader." Voting for this group of pets continues until July 19, at which point the top five pups and top five kitties will move on to the next round. Voting for that group will end July 25, and from July 26 to July 30, you'll be able to vote for the top two cats and top two dogs. We'll announce the grand prize winners on July 30.

We've gone through all the great entries and narrowed the cute and cuddly choices down to 10 dogs and 10 cats. Now we need your help picking the cutest kitty in the Paw Nation. (Go here for the cutest dog voting.) The grand prize winners receive a trip to a pet friendly destination (go here for all the great prize details and rules) and semi-finalists receive a pair of movie tickets to go to a hot summer flick (perhaps "Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore").

To choose a cat, all you need to do is click on "vote" under your fave in the two photos shown and then hit the "next round" link when it appears to go on to vote on the following sets of photos. Each round pairs two randomly selected pets, so don't be concerned if you see the same sweet face more than once!

To see the feline that is currently the crowd favorite, click on "view leader." Voting for this group of pets continues until July 19, at which point the top five pups and top five kitties will move on. Voting for that group will end July 25, and from July 26 to July 30, you'll be able to vote for the top two cats and top two dogs. We'll announce the grand prize winners on July 30.

We know you love animals and want to improve their lives. But we also know how busy you are. That's why Paw Nation is making it easy for you to get involved in the paws cause by sharing ways people are helping animals across the country and around the world. Use these ideas as inspiration for projects in your own community, or get involved directly with animal causes!

Give and Get
Sheryl Crow is teaming up with the Humane Society to make donating your hard-earned cash just a little more enticing. Crow, who recently filmed an ad with the HSUS, is offering a free download of her new song, "Our Love is Fading," to everyone who becomes a Humane Hero and offers a monthly donation. In addition, Humane Heroes receive a free subscription to the organization's magazine, All Animals. You can't lose, but the real winners are the animals who benefit.

Save the Date
Everybody's favorite animal activist, Betty White, can now add "centerfold" to her resume. The octogenarian is posing for The Betty White 2011 Calendar, which will be available in September for $12.99. All proceeds will benefit the Morris Animal Foundation of Denver, Colo., so mark your current, non-Betty-White calendar for September!

This image from the Daily Squee doesn't just make us smile; it also draws on nostalgia for the British anthropomorphic literature of our youths. Maybe it's because despite being unassailably cute, Mr. Badger and Mr. Fox appear to be engaged in sober conference. What serious business might they be discussing? Having grown up reading "The Wind in the Willows," "The Animals of Farthing Wood," and "Redwall," we imagine that some drama is going down in the forest. Some adorable drama.

Do you love your big lug of a pit bull? Adore your sweetheart of a mastiff? If you lived in Vienna, Austria, you'd be facing major hassles. Last week, the city passed a controversial new law that will require the owners of so-called "fight dogs" to carry a license proving they can keep their pets in check. Alexander Willer, a spokesman for Vienna's main animal shelter, told the Associated Press that the list of affected dogs -- including rottweilers, pit bull terriers, mastiffs, and others -- was compiled "at random." He added that this kind of discrimination makes it harder for abandoned dogs of these breeds to find new homes.

Austria isn't the only country cracking down. Denmark recently added 12 more dog breeds to an outright ban on dangerous dogs. That list of the country's banned breeds includes pit bulls, Tosa Inus, American Staffordshire terriers, Brazilian mastiffs, Argentine dogos, American bulldogs, boerboels, Kangals, Central Asian ovtcharkas, Caucasian ovtcharkas, Southern Russian ovtcharkas, tornjaks and Sarplaninacs, according to the (Denmark) "Politiken." While Vienna city councilor Sandra Frauenberger says that "this is not about the criminalization of any types of dogs," the owners of these breeds have expressed concern that their pets will be discriminated against because of their breeds' bad reputations.

Some states in the U.S. have similar regulations or bans. Last year, Paw Nation reported on a pit-bull ban in New York City housing projects. Just last week, a Miami, Fla. veterinarian wrote in USA Today about how she couldn't keep a stray dog she'd rescued because the pooch is a pit bull, a breed that her county has banned despite statistics that breed bans don't curb violence.