I don't know how it was done before, but it seems to me it'd be a bit easier if there were 4 categories of the Dog threads, Cat threads, Pet threads, and Other threads, and a winner in each of those categories. The message board is divided up into a Dog section, Cat section, Pet section, and Other section, so it makes sense (to me) to have one thread for each section.

I'm not trying to make things more complicated, it just seemed it might be a bit easier, especially for people who mainly hang out in one or two sections due to limited time, etc. I'm enjoying all the threads that have been posted!