Tact?

When Tom went on vacation, he left his beloved cat, Blackie, with his sister Joan. Three days into his trip, Tom called back to check on things.

"So how is my cat?" Tom asked.

"He's dead!" replied Joan. No nonsense. Straight to the point.

"What?" screamed Tom. "You can't just hit somebody with news like that! You have to ease your way into it. Lay some groundwork for it. Use some tact."

"What do you mean?" she said.

"Maybe you could have said something about Blackie being up on the roof. You reassure me you have it under control and that everything is going to be fine. When I call the next day, maybe you could say he jumped off and broke his leg, but the vet said he would make a complete recovery. He's just going to have to spend a few days at the clinic," he explained. “Understand what I’m saying?"

"Of course," said Joan. "I'm not stupid, you know!"

"Okay," Fred continued. "When I call back the next day, you could say there were complications and that my cat had died. That way it wouldn't be such a blow. That way you could have gotten me ready for bad news. Right?"

"Yeah, I've got it," she told him. "I'll try to be more careful from now on."

"Good," said Fred. "I'm glad that's settled. So how's Aunt Alice?"

"Well," Joan began hesitantly, "she's out on the roof right now."