Don't announce the cat is dead over dinner!

Gosh, how misleading. The blog is called "Something Funny Happened Today" and right out of the gate we are talking about dead pets. You are going to have to take a leap of faith right now and trust me that there could possibly be anything funny in a story about a cat and cancer. Hang on... and if you don't think it is funny you can leave a comment, not return, or stop taking leaps of faith with strangers.

Two weeks ago we were at my mil's house and the kids were playing with the cat. They were alarmed at the sound coming from the cat and it was determined that a cat should just not sound like that. My daughter LOVES animals and is tormented that she can't have one because her brother has allergies. You smarties can see where this is headed...

Fast forward one day, mil takes the cat to the morgue vet and finds out there is a tumor in the cat's throat and highway robbery surgery is required. Fast forward one more day to surgery and the untimely demise of the beloved kitty.

I got the news just as it was time to go to bed. My intution told me they'd never go to bed have bad dreams so I decided to wait until daddy got home the next day to tell them.

Over dinner, daddy clears his throat and begins to impart the sad news. I banged the table, gave "the look" and quickly engaged the kids in another topic. Mind you we were having chicken for dinner (one of only a handful of things my picky eater will ingest). WHO tells someone about a death over dinner? A man, that's who. I didn't want chicken to be ruined for her for the rest of her life with memories of being told about dead kitty over chicken.

We went upstairs, got pj's and teeth brushed (I didn't want toothbrushing ruined either, I'm selfish that way). We all piled on to the bed and daddy once again cleared his throat (he does this with bad news and when he is about to tell a lie). He gave it a great go starting with a re-cap of the strange sound coming from the cat's throat a mere two days ago. He was just getting into recounting all the things that we love about kitty when my daughter yells out "Is he DEAD!? Daddy, he's DEAD isn't he?!" Well, that was easy. No tears, she gleefully states, "Toby is in Heaven with my fish!" My son says,"Well, the good news is he won't scratch us anymore." Seems we won't miss that kitty as much as we thought but I still insist you should never announce a death over dinner.