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Putting the Cat on the Roof

Katherine Dobbs, RVT, CVPM, PHR

You’ve probably heard the saying, “Letting the cat out of the bag.” So what in the heck is, “Putting the cat on the roof?” Well, I learned this concept from an internist I had the pleasure of working with for many years. The first time I heard it, he was likely making his way in to an exam room to give bad news to a client, an unfortunate commonality in an internal medicine practice. With a quick, “I’m going to go put her on the roof,” he walked off down the hall. I was befuddled; then later he had the chance to explain it to me. Here’s the story…

There were two brothers, one of whom went on vacation. The other brother was pet-sitting his vacationing brother’s cat. On the first day away from home, the vacationing brother called home and asked his pet-sitting brother, “How’s my cat?”

The pet-sitting brother blurted out, “Oh, he’s dead, fell off the roof.” The vacationing brother was stunned, shocked, and momentarily silenced by the news. Then with a bit of anger in his voice he said, “Man, you shouldn’t have delivered the news that way!” and he continued by explaining how the pet-sitting brother should have moved more slowly toward the dismal ending.

The first day, the pet-sitting brother should’ve said the cat got out of the house. The second day, oops, now the cat is up in a tree. The third day, Man, now the cat’s on the roof! The day after that, oh, sorry to report, the cat fell off the roof and is now at the veterinarian, things don’t look good. Finally, the cat is pronounced dead, after having given the pet owning brother a chance to digest the news more slowly.

After explaining this concept to the pet-sitting brother, the vacationing brother asked, “OK, well, I’m sad to lose the cat, but I won’t hold it against you. So, how’s Mom doing?” After a long pause, “Well, she’s on the roof…”

I know, kind of a morbid ending, but hopefully you get the point. When you have bad news to deliver, you can try to ease into it just a bit. Now, I’m not recommending you outright lie, but there are ways to soften the blow so to speak. We do this without even making it a conscious plan when we are handling a tragedy.

A patient “crashes,” and one of us goes to explain to the family right away that the animal has experienced cardiac arrest. We go back for an update, and continue to keep the family in the loop as the tragedy unfolds in the back. If you watch how a doctor delivers the news of death on a medical show, they always start the conversation by talking about the wounds, the effort made to save the patient, and then finally that the patient has expired. If you start with the biggest baddest news, nothing else after that will be heard by the distraught family.

Keep this tool in mind when you have to deliver bad news of any sort, not just life and death. And by all means, keep your cat off the roof!

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Putting the Cat on the Roof

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