The YWS Big Birthday Contest was to write a personal essay no longer than 500 words. The form the essay took was entirely up to the author; it could be a story, a haiku, or an actual essay. First place got a $75 gift certificate to Amazon, second place got a $50 gift certificate to Amazon, and third place got a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.
First Place Winner: springrain2693 for I Live A Boring Life...
I live a boring life. It's as uninteresting as watching grass grow on a sunny day when there's plenty more to be done. Defining the best thing that has happened to me is even harder. I've never really thought hard about what the best thing that has happened to me is, but when asked, I would usually give a simple, shallow answer. An answer as shallow as the guilty pleasures of life that I enjoy, or a small one day event that's as pointless as an unsharpened pencil. The best thing that has happened to me in life would have to be this.
In August 2003, a stray little kitty wandered across our porch. Scrawny and hungry he was, but too scared to look at a human, he bolted away into the distance before we could do anything for him.
The next morning, drawn by the scent of breakfast cooking, he fell asleep on one of our porch chairs. We quietly opened the sliding door and set out some fresh water, milk, and cat food for him. His sensitive ears picked up the sound of course, and he woke up and dashed beneath the rosebushes. He couldn't stay under there forever, so he soon ventured back onto the porch and devoured the food. We took a liking to him, and to our parents' disapproval, we decided to keep and name him.
So, Fahmi it was.
For months, the cat wouldn't trust us to come near him, but every morning and every evening we fed him. When winter drew near, we made him a cardboard box house, and set it on the porch for him. He checked it out, and seemed to approve and then he slept in there every night. Whenever the porch doors were opened, he would seek refuge under the rosebush, until one day he stayed put.
I walked over to him and touched his head, and he leapt up and ran off with a hiss. Over the next weeks, I kept doing this to him, until he would hiss at me without running off. One day, determined to stroke his fur, I marched outside and picked him up without hesitation. He squirmed in my arms, but didn't attack. Triumphantly, I carried him right inside of the house, not even caring that my parents would scold me for bringing the "animal" inside. To me, it meant everything although it was only a morsel of progress. After that, I was entirely determined to train the cat. I tempted him with tuna and various other treats the cat would enjoy, and he began to make slow, but steady progress.
In a lot of ways, it was the best thing I could ask for. I can't put to words how happy it made me to be able to put my heart into something, and have the fruit of it visible for everyone to see. Everyone thought the cat would die, and that he would forever be feral. But I decided otherwise.
*salutes* You thoroughly deserve it, this was such a touching, honest piece.
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