Cat On The Roof
Shawn returns from a long trip to Europe, having left his beloved cat in his
brother’s care. The minute he clears customs, he calls his brother and inquires
after his pet.
“The cat’s dead,” his brother replies bluntly.
Shawn is devastated. “You don’t know how much the cat meant to me,” he sobs into
the phone.
“Couldn’t you at least have given a little thought to a nicer way of breaking
the news? For instance, couldn’t you have said, ‘Well, you know, the cat got out
of the house one day and climbed up on the roof, and the fire department
couldn’t get her down, and finally she died of exposure… of starvation… or
something like that’? Why are you always so thoughtless?”
“Look, I’m really, really sorry,” says his brother. “I’ll try to do better next
time, I promise.”
“Okay, let’s just put it behind us. How are you, anyway? How’s Mom?”
There was a long pause. ‘Uh,” the brother finally stammers, “uh… Mom’s on the
roof.”