A man had to go on a business trip for two weeks and asked his brother to watch his cat for him while he was gone. After a couple of days the man on the trip called his brother and asked how the cat was doing.
"Bad news," said his brother. "It got loose, got on the roof, fell off, and died."
"What, are you crazy," the man exclaimed. "How could you tell me such bad news so abruptly? You should have broken it to me gently."
"What do you mean," the brother said.
"You should have told me in stages. You could have told me that the cat had gotten out of the house on this call but you were searching for him. Then on the next call you could have told me the cat was on the roof, but you were trying to get him off of it. On the third call you could have told me the cat fell of the roof, but was at the vet. And finally, you could have told me that the cat had died."
"OK, I'll remember that," the brother said.
A few days later the business man called his brother and asked him, "how's dad?"
"He's gotten out of the house, but we're searching for him."