So a man who lived with his brother, and deeply loved mother and cat left for a trip across the ocean. A few days later he phoned home and asked his brother how the cat was.
"He dead," said the brother.
Stunned, the man was at a near loss for words, and being angered by grief shouted at his brother. "You don't just say he's dead you moron! First you say something like, 'He's up on the roof and I can't get him down.' Then when I call back the next day you should say, 'He's down from the roof but suffered from a sprained paw.' And on the third day tell me, 'He's at the vet's for the paw but is comfortably resting.' Then when I call the fourth time say, 'He had been doing well at the Vet's but took a turn for the worse and passed away peaceably.' That's how you handle such news. Got it?"
Well being winded from all this, the man then asked his brother, "So how's mom?"
And after a puzzling pause heard his brother say, "Well she's up on the roof and I can't get her down."
(rimshot smiley link)
