A Man Had To Go Abroad For Work For A Few Months And Left His Pet Cat In His Neighbor's Care

A month into his trip, he suddenly gets an email from his neighbor, "I am sorry John, but your cat is dead". He immediately left everything and flew back home. He loved his cat very much and was devastated by his death. He gave the cat a proper funeral, and then was prepared to go back to work again... Before leaving, he met his neighbor. He told him, "Thanks for letting me know. But you know, if something like this happens to someone in the future, you should not break the news like that, I could have got a heart attack, you know! You should always break such news slowly. For example, you could have sent me a mail saying, 'Hey John! Your cat is doing great, just today I saw it climbing the tree behind your home.' Then another in a while, 'Hey John, I am afraid there has been a bad storm, and the tree behind your house has fallen down'. Then, 'Bad news John, it seems your cat was stuck in the tree when the storm came... He is badly hurt and we are taking him to the vet now'. And then finally another mail, 'I am very sorry John, but we could not save your cat'. In this way, I would have been more prepared for the bad news"

His neighbor said, "I am sorry John, you are absolutely right. I will keep this in mind"

So John goes back to work, trying to forget his grief of losing the cat.

A couple of months later, he gets another e-mail from his neighbor. "Hey John, hope you are doing great! Just had a visit from your mother. She is climbing the tree in our backyard now!"