One day he was faced with a terrible decision.

Finally he decided to trust his brother with the cat for
the week he would be gone. He gave Richard detailed instructions, schedules,
food, etc. Finally he flew to London and called Richard every few hours to make
sure Gracie the cat was ok.

Four days of this went by and John was really getting to be
a pain in the neck.

On the fifth day when he called, John asked Richard how
Gracie was and

Richard told him. “Gracie is dead.”

Well as you can imagine, John nearly had a heart attack.

When he recovered he said to Richard, “That was
cruellest thing I ever heard. You know how much I loved that cat, why couldn’t
you have broken it to me gently? You know, like when I called said something
like, ‘well she’s OK but she is up on the roof’. And then when I called the
next time, tell me ‘oh oh, bad news, John, she fell off the roof and she’s at
the vets.’ And then the next time break the news that she passed away. At least
I would have been a little prepared for the bad news.”

“Yes, you are right John. I am sorry for being so
heartless.”

John accepted Richard’s apology for being so uncaring, and
then said, “Oh, by the way, how’s Mother?”

Richard then said, “Well, John, she’s OK, but she’s on
the roof…!!”