Essie's hero of the Day!

Tawana Couch makes her living as a flight attendant, but her real job is rescuing dogs. She started and heads up Operation Transport and founded Society for Companion Animals.

Though it's kind of hard for us to grasp the concept, in the northwestern states there are waiting lists of people who want to adopt shelter dogs. So Tawana makes the rounds of the shelters here and takes dogs that are closest to being euthanized. She and Frontier Airlines transport them to the northwest where they are placed with new families. More than 50 dogs have been saved in this doggie airlift project.

Tawana has a cadre of volunteers who participate in the projects. The dogs must be delivered before 4 a.m. to the cargo planes, because it's too hot for them to fly later in the day. Frontier discounts the rate for shipping the dogs to $100 to $150 each.

So to Tawana and Frontier Airlines and all the volunteers -- you're my heroes! If you want to be one of Essie's heroes, too, you can visit Tawana's website at www.societyforcompanionanimals.com.

"Going where they're really wanted." The Dallas Morning News; June 29, 2010; p. 1B.