The state is coordinating with the American Red Cross, Salvation Army,
N.C. Baptist Men and N.C. Social Services to shelter and feed evacuees. Mass Care Support trailers and mobile animal trailers are on standby in Halifax and Northampton counties to support those shelters.

Friskies has developed three games for cats for the iPad and Android tablets. This will not doubt lead to bandwidth choking and sluggish performance on video sharing sites.

Are you ready to test your tablet's scratch resistance? You can check out the apps at gamesforcats.com.
 

A sweet Raleigh Biscuit has great shot at appearing on "The View" tomorrow, but it's not the kind of biscuit you're likely thinking of.

This Biscuit is a kitty cat owned by Katelyn and Justin Bryan of Raleigh, who submitted Biscuit's photo hoping to win a spot in a Fancy Feast commercial which will air Monday on "The View." 

Katelyn and Justin adopted Biscuit back in the fall from Alley Cats & Angels, a no-kill cat shelter in Apex.

Professional dog walkers and pooper scoopers, be warned: PetSmart is considering expansion into in-home services to boost revenue, Bloomberg News reports.

Robert Moran, who became the largest U.S. pet-store chain's CEO last month, told Bloomberg that the company is in the early stages of deciding how to deliver profitable, quality services. PetSmart already offers grooming, training and keneling at many of its 1,137 stores, including about a dozen in the Triangle.

New services could include dog walking, backyard clean-up and aquarium set-up.

"In-home services are a big opportunity, but we have a lot of work to do before we determine how to make that work," Moran told Bloomberg. "It becomes a competitive advantage if we can break the code on how to provide that."

See photos from the International Cat Association's Southeast Regional Cat Show, held at the N.C. State Fairgrounds on Sunday, July 12, 2009. ... more

The story of Santos, the much pampered Persian who has been deemed the world's top cat, was a reader favorite on Tuesday at newsobserver.com. It seems that he was a welcome diversion in a world of bad news that seems to get gloomier by the day.

Some readers were not content to just read about the North Raleigh residents who have made an expensive hobby of keeping Santos in impeccable shape for international cat fanciers' shows, they wanted to praise the beauty and smarts of their own furry felines. (In the interest of full disclosure, I live with Lady Ashley, a mutt who nonetheless demands to be treated like those of the finest pedigrees.) I can assure you tha my feline preference had absolutely nothing to do with Santos appearance on the front page. I am outnumbered by dog people and puppies get their turn today.

In addition to their prose, cat fanciers sent photos. Among those we heard from were fans of Hartley Peavey, nominated to be West Raleigh's top cat. Enjoy. -- Linda Williams

Although Orange County commissioners have postponed a decision on an ordinance that would ban dog tethering, Durham officials are scheduled to move forward tonight with their proposed ban on tethering.

Read more over at the Bull's Eye blog.

(This blog entry replaces an earlier version.)

County commissioners passed a ban on dog tethering tonight with a 4-to-1 vote. (Visit the county's Web site to see the ordinance.)

The decision came after months of heated debate and a two-hour public hearing earlier this month. Commissioner Lewis Cheek was the only dissenter on the five-member board (see the concerns he voiced last week).

Durham now joins the town of Clayton to become the second Triangle jurisdiction to ban dog-tethering. Orange county leaders also have considered a similar ban, but have not yet adopted a new ordinance.