Open mouth, insert foot

I have a tendency to get myself in trouble with my mouth.  Sometimes I say inappropriate things that hurts someone's feelings without thinking first.  Sometimes it's completely innocent as I am speaking without knowing all the facts.  It's those moments I seem to specialize in and I am thankful that some people are very understanding of my innocence because my intention is not to hurt his or her feelings

I worked with Patti at a former company and she and I always got along.  I interacted with her quite a bit late in my career there as she was in charge of the mail room and later the manager over the mail room and I was on the team that handled the imaging of all the incoming mail.  I also worked with her a lot on 1099s as I handled that project for five years.

Patti's actually a very nice person, but I only knew her at a distance although there were a handful of times that she was at one of the bars after work that I would sometimes visit, so I really didn't know her well.

I tracked her down one day on the third floor and asked her if she had a few minutes to talk regarding something work related.  It was around 3:00.

"It's got to be really quick," she told me, "I have to leave at 3:15 to take my cat to the vet."

"Oh," I said.

"Don't roll your eyes at me," she said.

It was not directed at her, but at pet owners in general.

"C'mon.  You're one of those people," I said laughing.  "I hear people all the time dote on their pets.  Some people won't even take a vacation because poor little fluffy might miss them.  I'm mean, c'mon ..."

"I'm having my cat put down," she stated flatly.

"Oh my God."

I felt horrible for teasing her about her doting on her cat.  There was noting I could say and I may have been laughing, not at her having to put her pet down, but at how truly horrifying of a hole I dug myself into.

"I'm so sorry."

"It's OK," she told me.  And thankfully, she meant it.  We always got along and she never held a grudge against me for ragging on her.  And if I had a clue, I would've just shut up and not said anything.