Lady & Tramp: Big Differences, Faithful Friends

One of the more unusual friendships I've ever seen developed between a dog and cat we owned years ago. We "inherited" a stray dog, an elderly cocker spaniel that showed up at a friend's door one day. Since she was such a sweet-natured and gentle dog, we named her "Lady." We got a small male kitten not long after that, and the kitten was so young he fixated on the much older dog. It seemed only natural to name him "Tramp," since he was so feisty and full of spunk.

Soon the two of them, Lady and Tramp, became best buddies. Since Lady was quite old when we got her, her eyesight soon began to fail (she had cataracts and could only see peripherally). It wasn't long before young Tramp became a "seeing-eye cat" for the dog, a role he took quite seriously. We lived on a dead-end road about 200 yards long with only four or five houses on it, so traffic wasn't a problem. Nearly every day, late in the afternoon, the two of them would take a walk down that road. How they communicated to each other that it was time for their daily excursion remains a mystery to me, but they did it almost daily except in very bad weather. It was quite a sight—the two of them would walk slowly, side by side, all the way to the end of the road and back, then come back into the house to curl up together for a nap. Lady used Tramp as a set of eyes, and Tramp was happy to oblige, apparently because he simply enjoyed Lady's companionship.

They were quite a pair, those two. God's Word has a lot to say about true love being demonstrated by serving and helping others. That kind of attitude is at the heart and core of many a lasting friendship. I've seldom seen it demonstrated any better than in feisty little Tramp and his faithful companion Lady, who enjoyed one another's friendship so very much.