Figure 1: Cat on Roof

A while back, Dwayne took his family on a long cross-country trip. He arranged for his brother to take care of his cat and houseplants while he was gone. Every few days, he called to check on things. At first, everything was fine ... but one day the conversation went like this:

Dwayne:

How’s things?

Brother:

Well, I got some bad news. Your cat died.

Dwayne:

Whaaaat? You can’t say that! Don’t have have any tact???

Brother:

What do you mean?

Dwayne:

Look, you don’t just blurt something out like that! I mean the kids were were very attached to that cat. I’m attached to the cat. You can’t just – boom – announce that the cat’s dead.

Brother:

So what am I supposed to do?

Dwayne:

You should have said, “The cat’s on the roof and she won’t come down.”

The next time you say, “Well the cat came down but the cat, but it was raining and the cat’s sick so we had to take her to the vet.”

And the next time you can say, “We did everything we could but, you know, Fluffy passed away.” The point is, you have to be more gentle with people. Give us some time to come to terms with the situation.

Brother:

OK, OK, OK.

A week later Dwayne calls again........

Dwayne:

How’s things?

Brother:

Well, Grandma’s on the roof and she won’t come down.