Yeah, for a past few decades our winter have been unreliable, too. When I was a kid, at this time of the year it always was at least knee-deep of snow and temperatures around -15°C. Now it is less than inch of snow, and today the temperature is like -2°C. This is, of course, better than rainfall with temperatures above freezing - we have also had such winters.

I'm definitely a winter person, and even though indoors temperature below +10°C isn't actually anything like a pleasant experience, on the broader scale it makes me happy to think that one day it will be spring and then it will warm summer temperatures. It is this cycle I love, each season coming with its own special charisma =)

Yeah, I've seen a cat who jumped against the door, grabbing the door handle with his paws, and repeating the procedure until he managed to open the door. But he never bothered to close the door, although that is physically a rather simple action of merely pushing the door. Sure, cat intelligence and ability is enough to enable them to close doors, but maybe it is just that they don't care =)