Fair weather, Ophelia, Helping Pets

This has been an extended stretch of nice weather in The Tennessee Valley. If it weren't for a double-check on the calendar, I'd think it was October. Usually we don't enjoy dry air, cool mornings and warm afternoons until the 10th month. But we'll take this as long as it lasts. If my math is correct, we have had 38 days this year with highs 90 or above. In a normal year we have 46. The last time we officially hit 90 or higher was on Sept. 2nd when we made it to 91. So we have had 5 days without a 90 degree reading. A bit surprising considering the time of year and the fact we have had nearly full sun. The last time we went more than 5 days without hitting 90 was July 10th through the 17th. A rather rainy period with over 2.5" in Chattanooga.
Ophelia remains a bit of a mystery. Right now she appears to be gradually strenthening with 60 mph winds. This morning's problems are two-fold. First Ophelia is expected to become a hurricane in the next 24 hours. And the second problem is the storm is not moving much at all. In fact The National Hurricane Center has the system off the Florida Coast for the next 3 to 5 days. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at1+shtml/085310.shtml?5day?large
I think there's still potential for Ophelia to cross Florida and end up in some form in the Gulf. Most of the models like the idea of a turn out into the Atlantic. We'll see.
The Humane Society of the United States is asking web administrators and bloggers to add a link to their site. The outpouring of help for the human survivors of "Katrina" has been tremendous. Let's hope there's some help for the four-legged survivors as well.

If you would like to contribute, here's the link: http://www.hsus.org/