When his big Lab Rex was hit by the truck, John rushed him down to Dr. Spay, the Vet, to see what he could do with him. "It doesn't look good", Dr. Spay announced upon a quick look at the mangled dog. "I think your Rex is dead but to make sure, I'll perform some tests on him." John agreed with him and added, "Doc, I need to be sure ol Rex is really gone."
Dr. Spay then put his stethoscope on Rex's heart and listened carefully. "Don't hear nothing", he reported sadly. Next, he put a small mirror in front of Rex's nose to see if the slightest breath from Rex would fog the mirror. "Nothing there,?", John asked. "Sorry John, it looks really bad." "There's one more test I can do that has never failed. If there's any life left in your dog, this test will bring it out."
At this point, Dr. Spay went in the back and brought out his large cat Scruffy that hung aroung his office. Grabbing the cat's front legs with one hand and the cat's hind legs with the other hand he stretched the cat out and very slowly moved the cat over the dog. Starting from the dog's face and moving slowly over the back all the way to the tail and then back again to the face. The dog just lay there motionless.
"I'm so sorry, John, but your Rex is truly dead. You should just go home and bury him now cause there's nothing more I can do with him here." John went home and buried ol Rex and for a couple of weeks had just started to heal from the tradgedy when the postman brought him a letter. It was from the Vet, Dr. Spay. It was an invoice for $1,025 !!
John quickly grabbed the telephone and called the Vet's office and said to the bookeeper, "Could you please itemize this bill?!" "Certainly", came the reply. "There's a $15 office visit charge, a $5 stethoscope charge and a $5 fog-the-mirror charge." "Alright", said John, "then what's the remaining $1,000 for ?!" The bookeeper answered, "Oh, that's for the Cat Scan".