To help make a difference in the lives of animals throughout the world, Joanne took it upon herself to sell her home and take Oscar on a $40,000 trip around the world to help bring attention to the plight of shelter pets. To the left, you can see Oscar at Machu Picchu.

During their trip, Joanne and Oscar fell in love with another pup in Romania, and their new friend Zara will soon join them at their permanent home in South Africa.

Puppy Bowl VI went off without a hitch this year, and the animal shelter stars were absolutely spectacular –like always. This year’s MVP was a delightfully rambunctious chug (chihuahua/pug) mix named Jake. This little devil not only won MVP, but also took first place in the online viewer poll. Way to go Jake!

To see Jake in action, be sure to watch the video on Animal Planet.

A new English documentary covers the problems associated with breeding purebred animals. The documentary even covers how these breeds have changed in the last century as long as the breed-specific diseases associated with many breeds. The show will be appearing on BBC America for those who are interested in watching it.

Cody, a helpful and friendly dog ambassador in a Florida gas station, has been ordered to stay home because health inspectors have no sympathy for animals being in the same place as food for sale. Of course, Cody really poses no threat to the pre-packaged, sealed food, but that’s bureaucrats for you. To read more on the issue, see the article on Dogster.

Click the link, I’m sure you’ll like the article.

Meet Pabst. With an adorable underbite, this beautiful boxer mix is the proud winner of the 2009 World’s Ugliest Dog Competition in Petaluma. Personally, I think he’s too adorable for his own good.

The breeder the family’s dog came from sounds like a reputable and legitimate pet breeder, which is good. The bad part is that it will open up the door for back yard breeders and puppy mills to start selling Portuguese water dogs and average families are likely to be too poor and/or too ill-educated on the dangers of these puppy factories to say no.

Everyone is expecting the popularity of this dog to sky rocket and not adopting an animal from a shelter could be a crucial blow to rescue centers that are currently over-full and under-funded. Now, more than ever, shelter pets could use some extra love and this was a big opportunity for the Obama’s to help out.

As far as the breed itself, Obama initially said he was interested in getting a mutt “like himself,” which he seemed to go back on completely. The advantage to the family doing this is that a huge surge of popularity for “mutts” could benefit all mutts -particularly if the dog’s heritage itself were hard to identify. This could really help out shelters who are loaded up with tons of mixed breed dogs. Many shelter pets will be put to sleep this year and the first family could have made a huge difference in the number of euthanized pets.

The dog choice of the president may be good for his family, but it’s quite disappointing to our nation as a whole.

It sounds mean, but there is actually quite a bit of competition for the title of ugliest dog in the annual San Diego competition.This years winner is the “lovely” boxer mix, Chomper, seen to the left. She was the only puppy of her litter to survive and always carries her tongue out, even when her mouth is closed. Lest you worry about little Chomper, she is actually a very healthy pup of 4 years. To see a video of the event, click here. Chomper is actually very cute in the video.

The dog contest is held by the Kiwanis of San Diego and aside from ugliest dog, there are also prizes for cutest dog, best St. Patties Day Contest, best mutt and more. Procedes help animal shelters across the county.

As much as I love tripeds, it sincerely saddens me to know the spunky pups that survive so well without one of their limbs are doomed to die a very untimely death. It’s great to hear about advances like this one that help dogs who are handicapped due to accidents or birth defects live normal and lengthy lives.

Jennifer Aniston’s Corgi/Terrier Mix was voted the best celebrity dog of 2008 by their users. Bonus points to the pup for disliking John Mayer. Go muttskis!