Faithful Friends Program - Carrollton, TX

For just a dollar a day you can save an animal's life like Zsa Zsa at Operation Kindness, a no-kill animal shelter through their Faithful Friends Automatic Contribution Program.

There are thousands of animals in the facility, opened since 1976, due to overcrowding and you can donate by going to http://operationkindness.org/donate/index.php#automatic.

In unrelated pet news, Feb. 17 is the day to speak up for animals with the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) at Texas Humane Lobby Day.

To RSVP, access http://action.humanesociety.org/site/Calendar?id=103403&view=Detail&autologin=true&s_src=humaneaction&s_subsrc=tx010711 online.

The HSUS released its second annual "Humane State Ranking," a comprehensive report ranking all 50 states on a wide range of animal protection laws.

The search is still on for Lena, a dog through the Missing Pet Partnership, (MPP) who disappeared from her dog crate at Sea Tac Airport on Dec. 17. According to the agency's press release, by the time Lena's owner called MPP, Lena had already been missing for two weeks. MPP searched area shelters, posted Lena on Craig's List, put out a press release, and put up neon posters by the airport. In addition, on New Years Day seven MPP volunteers conducted an "Intersection Alert" at the entrance to SeaTac airport and managed to get news coverage for Lena's story on two local stations (KOMO 4 and KING 5). Sadly, Lena still has not been found. She's an eight-month old, 28-lb. Lab mix, tan, with black muzzle and white chest with pointy ears. Lena could be in the Burien / SeaTac, WA area or she may have ended up in a shelter and could be anywhere in the Puget Sound area.

If you have info about Lena, call MPP at (253) 529-3999.

Her home is in Alaska.

If you live in California and are a creature of the four-legged variety and you lick faces or purr there aren't many better places to live, according to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle which states that the state ranks fifth for protecting pets. (Source: Animal Legal Defense Fund).

"The researchers went through 4,000 pages of statutes and ranked the comprehensives and strength of animal protection laws in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories," the article stated. (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/31/BAPN1H139A.DTL). "Illinois, it turns out, is a relative Shangri-la for companion animals."

California was once tops in the pet protection department, according to Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer.

"Twenty years ago, only six states allowed the most egregious forms of animal cruelty, like torture to be charged as felonies," he writes.