Order of Honor

A woman brought a very limp parrot into a veterinary hospital. As she lay 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, 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 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 then led the dog 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 it's head, meowed and ran out of the room. The vet looked at the woman and said, " I'm sorry, but like I said, your parrot is most definitely, 100%, certifiably dead."

He then turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill which he handed to the woman. The parrot's owner, still in shock, took the bill.

"$150.! " she cried. "$150. 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 with the Lab report and the Cat Scan...what did you expect?