I travel out of town quite a bit for my job and always get my brother to watch my house and take care of my cat, a temperamental creature on the best of days. And as usual, I always call in to my brother every two days, just to make sure everything is ok.
This time, when I called, my brother blurted out, as soon as he answered the phone, "Your cat is dead!"
I was a bit stunned and it took me a little bit to respond.
"Brother," I said, " That is just something you shouldn't blurt out like that. You should take a bit of time to build it up a bit to prepare me for the bad news."
"Well, what you suggest I should have said?"
"I don't know. Maybe something like... Your cat got out of the house the other and climbed up on the roof.We tried our best to get him down. When we could not get him down, we called the Fire Department. When they got there, they set up the ladders and everything else. I thought they were going to get the little rascal down with no trouble, but just as they werre getting close, your cat got scared and jumped off the roof. Unfortunately, he did not survive the fall. I am so sorry."
"OK," he said. "I can see where that would be better for you."
"Well, now that that is out of the way," I said, " how is Mom doing?" I asked.
"Well, yesterday, Mom was up on the roof..."
