placed her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope
and listened to the bird's chest. After a moment or two, the vet
shook his head sadly and said, "I'm so sorry, but Polly has passed
away." The distressed owner wailed, "Are you sure? I mean, you
haven't done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in
a coma or something."
The vet rolled his eyes, shrugged, turned and left the room,
returning a few moments later with a beautiful black Labrador. As
the bird's owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind
legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the
dead parrot from top to bottom. He then looked at the vet with sad
eyes and shook his head.
The vet patted the dog and took it out, but returned a few moments
later with a cat. The cat jumped up and also sniffed delicately at
the ex-bird. The cat sat back, shook its head, meowed and ran out
of the room.
The vet looked at the woman and said, "I'm sorry, but as I said,
your parrot is definitely 100% certifiably ... dead." He then turned
to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill which
he handed to the old lady.
The parrot's owner, still in shock, took the bill. "$500!," she
cried, "$500 just to tell me that my bird is dead!?" The vet
shrugged. "If you'd taken my word for it the bill would only have
been $20, but what with the Lab report and the Cat scan..."