I'd like to think I'm clever...

Had a cat in today for a major working over-- knocked him out, cleaned his teeth and pulled several, removed a bunch of warty growths from his back and tail, trimmed nails and gave him a lion-cut. When the owner dropped him off, she said she had $400 she could spend on the cat right now. I said we'd see what we could do...

When she she picked him up, I explained that we tried, really tried to keep it right $400, but we just couldn't quite manage....

to get it over $300.

She was, understandably, disappointed.

:)