Camp Bow Wow, a doggy daycare and overnight camp based in Colorado, has compiled a list of the Top 10 Breaking Animal News Stories of 2011. From a blind Great Dane Lily and her trusted companion and guide dog, Maddison, to the story of Jack the Cat who started a social media revolution, this past year has been filled with standout animals.

1. Humane Society Rescues 1,673 Puppy Mill Dogs in 2011
This past year, The Animal Rescue Team of the Humane Society has saved 1,673 dogs from horrific puppy mills.

2. Fallen Soldier’s Family Brings Dog They Named “Hero” Home from Iraq
“I felt that if I could hold one of the puppies that he had held, it would bring bring a little bit of him back to me,” she said. Carey Neesley understands that. The social worker in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., went to herculean lengths to get her brother’s two pet dogs out of Iraq after he died in December 2008. He had saved the stray Labrador and her pup from Baghdad’s mean streets, where dogs are unloved and short-lived.

3. Blind Great Dane Lily in Need of a Home with Space for Her Huge Guide Dog, Maddison
When illness forced vets to remove Great Dane Lily’s eyes, the prospects of a fulfilling life didn’t look good. But then no one had reckoned on her pal Maddison stepping in to turn guide dog. The pair have been inseparable for years but now find themselves looking for a new home because their owner could no longer cope. The catch for anyone interested is that the Great Danes come as a package. They have been waiting at the Dogs Trust re-homing centre in Shrewsbury since July.

4. Jack the Cat is Missing at JFK and a Virtual World is Watching
Ms. Pascoe’s nightmare has turned into something of one for American Airlines, as pet lovers and sympathizers have seized upon Jack’s cause. As Jack remains at large, the wall on the American Airlines Facebook page has been besieged by impassioned pleas for the airline to do more to find him, and provide more frequent updates to those around the country who are anxiously awaiting word of Jack’s whereabouts.

5. Cat Found 5 Years , 1,800 Miles and One Microchip Later
Willow disappeared from her home in Boulder, Colo., five years ago. Her owners thought she had been killed by coyotes and had moved on. And Willow, apparently, just moved. She turned up this week in Manhattan, 1,800 miles from where she was last seen. A microchip implanted when she was a kitten helped track down her owners, according to The Associated Press.

6. Banned by Many Airlines, These Bulldogs Fly Private
When Louie York flew cross country on Sept. 15, his route from New York was anything but direct. First came a stop in Chicago and then one in Omaha, where he endured a six-hour layover. Next were Denver, Phoenix and, finally, Los Angeles, 18 hours later. The capper: a seven-hour drive home to the San Francisco Bay Area. Such is life for travelers like Louie, a French bulldog whose breed has been banned from most commercial airlines — not for the dogs’ bark or bite, but because so many have died in flight.

7. Police Kill Dozens of Animals Freed from Ohio Preserve
Both the woman and the operator seemed surprisingly calm considering that it was not merely a bear and a lion but 56 exotic creatures — a fierce menagerie that included wolves, monkeys and 18 Bengal tigers, an endangered species whose numbers total less than 3,000 in the wild — that had fled their cages on a 73-acre private reserve. Friends described the couple who ran it as animal lovers, but they also had a history of run-ins with the authorities.

8. A New Level of Fraud: Pets Are Getting Killed for the Insurance Money
Insurance fraud has reached a new low in the U.K., where authorities have discovered a rise in claims on pet insurance policies. According to the Association of British Insurers, last year £1,929,900 ($3 million) was collected in pet insurance compared to £420,000 ($667, 842) in 2009, the Telegraph reports. In 2010, 2.3 million cats and dogs were insured, and since almost any type of animal can be insured, experts are bracing for an even bigger influx in dishonest claims.

9. Mating Turtles Shut Down Runway at JFK
Love is in the air at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. More than 150 turtles crossed over an active runway and disrupted air traffic on Wednesday so that they could continue their mating season. The diamondback terrapins were trying to get to an ideal location to lay their eggs. That's a sandy area that happens to be across Runway 4, according to Carol Bannerman of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The turtles were primarily female, and the fertilization of their eggs occurs in the water, she said.

10. Tsunami Dog Found After 3 Weeks at Sea Near Japan
In the tragic aftermath of Japan's disaster, this heart-warming story surfaces. A full 3 weeks after a devasting earthquake and resulting tsunami hit Japan, coast guards spotted a dog on a floating roof a little over a mile and a half out to sea. The canine had been washed out to sea, floating on the island of debris off the coast of Kesennuma in northern Japan, according to the Telegraph.