A woman brought a very limp parrot into a veterinary surgery. 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 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 took 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 its 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 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......"

All that to determine the basic shape of the situation:

Polly gone.