John had just won first prize at a cat show and had received a
 10-day cruise to the Puerto Rico. The catch was, though, pets
 weren't allowed on the cruise. So John decided to leave his cat
 with his best friend, Al.
 
 Al agreed to come over to John's house and live with his mom for
 the duration of the cruise. John told Al, "Just feed the cat three
 meals a day, and take good care of him. He's my prize-winning
 cat!" And with that, he left.
 
 The next day, John phoned Al on his cell phone and asked, "How are
 things?" To which Al responded, "Things are fine."
 
 "How's Mom?"
 
 "Mom's fine."
 
 "How's the cat?"
 
 "The cat's fine." Satisfied, John hung up.
 
 
 Next day, John called Al again, asking the same questions.
 
 "How are things?"
 
 "Things are fine."
 
 "How's Mom?"
 
 "Mom's fine."
 
 "How's the cat?"
 
 "The cat's DEAD."
 
 "WHAT?!?" John was quite distressed.  "How could you let it die?
 It was my prize cat!"
 
 "Well, John, I'm sorry, but I couldn't do anything, I didn't see
 it. But what I think happened was that the cat was on the roof,
 fell off, and broke his leg. Then, he hobbled out into the road,
 and got run over."
 
 John was cooling down a bit now, and said, "Well, couldn't you
 have tried to break it to me over time?  You could have said it
 bit by bit. For example, you could have first said 'The cat's on
 the roof', then the next day said 'The cat fell off the roof, and
 broke its leg', see what I'm saying."
 
 "Yeah, yeah, I get it.  See you later, John."
 
 "Ok... bye."  John hung up.
 
 The next day, John phoned Al again.
 
 "How are things?"
 
 "Things are fine."
 
 "How's Mom?"
 
 "Umh," Al said, "Mom's on the roof."