The Duck is Dead
>
>
> A woman
> brought a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon.
> As she laid
> 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 sorry,
> your duck, Cuddles, has
> passed away."
>
> The distressed woman wailed, "Are you
> sure?"
>
> "Yes, I am sure. The duck is dead," replied
>
> the vet.
>
> "How can you be so sure?" she protested. "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,
> turned around and left the room.
>
> He returned a few
> minutes later with a black Labrador Retriever. As the
> duck's
> owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind
> legs, put
> his front paws on the examination table and
> sniffed the duck from top to
> bottom. He then looked up at the
> vet with sad eyes and shook his head.
> The vet
> patted the dog on the head and took it out of the room.
>
> A
> few minutes later he returned with a cat. The cat
> jumped on
> the table and
> also delicately sniffed the bird from
> head to foot. The cat sat back on its
> haunches, shook its
> head, meowed softly and strolled out of the room.
>
> The vet
> looked at the woman and said, "I'm sorry, but as I
> said,
> 20 this is
> most definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead
> duck."
>
> The vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few
> keys and produced a bill,
> which he handed to the
> woman.
>
> The duck's owner, still in shock, took the bill.
> "$150!" she cried, "$150
> just to tell me my duck is
> dead!"
>
> The vet shrugged, "I'm sorry. If you had just
> taken my word for it, the bill
> would have been $20, but with
> the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it's
> now
> $150."