I've always preferred dogs as pets and have never really been much of a fan of cats.

However, I am pleased to announce that one of our cats is a turncoat on its species. Smokey is officially a Catdog. Fetching and returning his ball is his FAVORITE thing. That's right. He fetches! He will bring me the ball at the strangest places in order to initiate the game. He has brought the ball to me in the middle of the night while I am sleeping and tried to force my hand to take it so he could play. He has brought it to my chair when I am on the computer working, jumped upon the back of the couch and the end table in order to drop the ball on me when I am watching TV, dropped it between my feet while I was doing laundry, dishes or cooking (although we do NOT play when cooking) as well as many other inopportune times.

Oh yes, sometimes in the middle of a fetch game he will drop his ball into his water dish and then bring the dripping, soggy ball to me. Of course I can't throw it through the house like that so I have to go to the sink, squeeze out the excess water and then paper towel it dry before the game can continue. I haven't quite figured that one out yet.

He has even gone to get the ball at my suggestion when I want to play... (Smokey, go get your ball...where's your ball?...bring it to me) but not always, most often it is his idea. And it takes a long time to tire him of the game, usually 15 -20 fetches...upstairs, downstairs, from one room to another, rebounds off walls...wherever. When he finally gets tired of fetching and returning the ball he will reclaim his identity as a cat at which time he walks about 3 or 4 feet away from me and plops down to look at me like I'm the crazy one. It's pretty funny although I think the other 'true cat' is somewhat annoyed by his strange behavior.

They have dozens of different kinds of balls but he only likes to fetch one particular kind and we only have 3 of those. He also likes to bat them (along with all the other balls) underneath the China cabinet. Recently we were unable to find any of his 'fetching' balls so we couldn't get him to fetch. We looked everywhere for them only to discover them inside the pool table preventing the pool balls from rolling down. All three were there. We had to partially take the table apart to retrieve them.

But it's my own fault. I was the guilty party who put all the pool balls on the table and scattered them around showing Smokey how to push them into the holes. He was doing a great job by scooting them a little at a time with his paw until they would fall into the hole. I thought it was pretty cute at the time. I never thought about him dropping toys into the holes. Oh well, at least now we know where to look.

Smokey has at least one more peculiarity. He has a pink stuffed bunny just about his size and it shows up everywhere. He drags it downstairs and puts its mouth in the food or water dish, or takes it to the scratching post and has even put it by the litter box. On one occasion it was lying on the floor about 2 feet from his favorite ball as I walked by. I turned to look back when I saw Smokey making his way toward the bunny. It seems he is very generous with his pet bunny. He put the ball against the bunny's mouth and lay down in front of it. I'm beginning to think he believes the bunny is real and quite possibly thinks it is the dumbest feline he has ever seen. So dumb in fact, that he must teach it everything it should know about being a cat. And he continues to teach day after day after day. You gotta love that!

But isn't that a little bit like what we should be doing for new Christians? You know, if we just put in half as much effort showing them how to be a Christian we would be doing pretty good. I believe the word we use for this is discipleship. Discipleship is about spending time with the new followers of Christ and setting the example for them with our own lives.

At the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul speaks of doing things that will glorify God. In verse 24 he said, 'Don\\\'t think only of your own good. Think of other Christians and what is best for them.' He urged them in verse 32 'Don\\\'t give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God.' He further stated in verse 33, 'I don\\\'t just do what I like or what is best for me, but what is best for them so they may be saved.' And then in 1 Corinthians 11:1 he said, 'And you should follow my example, just as I follow Christ\\\'s.'

Paul has told us just how important discipleship is. And in some strange ways I suppose Smokey has shown us how to do it.