A man woke up one morning and discovered that has pet parrot was laying on the bottom of his cage motionless. He quickly got dressed, grabbed the cage, and raced to the vet's office. The vet looked at the parrot for a minute or so and told the man that his pet had passed away. The man was terribly distraught as he had the parrot for many years and it was his closest companion.

He pleaded with the doctor: "Are you absolutely sure my parrot is dead, maybe he is in coma or something and will wake up?"
The vet said the he was pretty sure, but he could do something else.
The man implored: "Please, please, do it!"

With that the vet walked into a back room and soon came back with a Labrador Retriever. The dog walked over to the motionless bird and sniffed at its face trying to detect a breath. Then he put his ear to the bird's chest to listen for a heart beat. The dog poked and prodded for ten minutes and then walked over to the vet and shook his head back and forth, "No".

The doctor said to the man, "I'm sorry but the parrot is dead."
The man started crying and after a while asked the doctor: "Are you absolutely, absolutely sure?"
The doctor replied: "Well, there is one last thing I could do."
The man responded: "Please do it and then I won't bother you any more."

The vet walked into the back room again and this time came out with a Siamese cat. The cat walked over to the parrot and looked it right in the face. And then slowly and carefully the cat looked up and down every inch of the bird, several times. The cat came back to the vet and shook her head back and forth, "No".

The vet said: "Now I am absolutely sure that the parrot is dead."
The man said: "Thanks, doc. By the way, how much do I owe you?"
The vet said: "$400"
The man said: "$400. Just for telling me that my parrot is dead?"
The vet said: "No. It would have been $20 for me to tell you that your bird was dead, but it came to $400 when you add in the Lab tests and the CAT scan."