Geoff Duncan

Seattle's far enough north (roughly 47°, 37' N, 122° 19'W) that the length of the day changes a bit from season to season. In the winter, the sun sets around 4 PM, but in the summer twilight extends to 10:30 PM. With clear skies, anyway.

One upshot of this is that cats, who almost universally love sunshine, sometimes have to go to new extremes to warm themselves. Our neighbor kittie Brutus, who in the summer lounges on the concrete patio, has been complaining for months that his warm, sunny concrete slab north of the house is broken—now it's in the shade all the time and very cold on his feet! Fix it! he insists whenever we visit out back.

I've been letting Brutus down: I probably won't get around to fixing the patio until March or April. And in the meantime, he's forces to perch atop an inch-wide fence to catch the last rays of afternoon sun.

You can tell from his glare that he's not very happy with me!