Hello. My name is Russell. I am a perfect example of an ordinary 16-year-old horse. I watch TV, play video games, and hang out with my friends; you know, all the stuff teens do. My birthday is on February 14th, Valentines Day, and I just turned 16 last week. All of my birthdays have been wonderful. All except one. It was my Twelfth birthday. It was a bright, sunny day. The daffodils were a vibrant yellow, swaying in the wind like children on a swing set. The trees were jolly green giants, greeting me as I made my way from my blue, two-story, Victorian style home. I was headed towards the mall, where my friends and I like to hang out. My friends are: Tony, the tall, lean, muscular, lion that works at Hot Topic in the mall; Lee, the short, plump, snow leopard that works at the bakery, that is right across the hall from Hollister, where Jeff, her boyfriend, works; Jeff is an average- sized, gray- furred surfer wolf. Anyway, they told me that they had planned something special for my twelfth birthday, not just the usual cake and ice cream. "It could be any number of things." I thought to myself. "It could be that triple- chocolate, raspberry- filled, mocha supreme Danish- cake Lee made. Or it could be some sort of band tee from Tony. He always did like that kind of clothing. It could also be a nice pair of Hollister pants from Jeff. Who knows, it could be anything!" As I was lost in thought, a male feline pounced on me from behind a bush. He was a savage and burly panther considering he could hoist my tremendous girth. He carried me for what seemed to be an eternity and did not breathe hard in the slightest. I fought him as hard as I could but gave up when he hit me in the head and blindfolded me. When he took off the blindfold, I was confused and did not know where I was. I appeared to be in a basement. There were pipes, and wires everywhere. I tried to move, but I could not. I was taped to the wall. I think I was in that basement for at least eight days. Days run into night with no windows; it could have been half that time. I was forced to live out this nightmare as if in a horror movie playing out in slow motion. I received no food, only water of which I got a sip of every hour or so. It was hard to sleep with the eerie sound of a pipe dripping in the intense, hollow darkness of the basement. On what I thought was the eighth day, I heard the distinct sound of sirens in the distance. As they got closer, my heart pounded harder and harder until I was almost sure that it was going to burst right out of my chest. The next thing I heard had to have triggered one of the happiest moments of my entire life. The police kicked down what I thought was the front door and shouted: "get on your knees and put your paws behind your head!" I suddenly burst into tears as the police opened the basement door and I saw daylight for the first time in sixteen days, the police said was sixteen days, anyway. When they un- taped me from the wall, I immediately fell limply to the ground from lack of muscle. The three police officers carried me out to an awaiting ambulance, which immediately took me to a hospital. Once at the hospital, I was escorted to my room, where my mom and my friends were waiting to see if I was all right. For the next three days, I was in my hospital room, with my mother at my side the whole time, mentally recovering and re- gaining muscle tissue by working out. As soon as I got out of the hospital, my friends held a huge birthday party for me. They invited the whole town to my party and the only person that did not show up was Jake, the town sheriff. The party lasted for about two and a half hours, and in that time, I found out what my "special surprise" was. Jeff, Lee and Tony all saved their money to buy me a brand new laptop. I was so immensely happy, I cried. I told them at that it wouldn't have mattered if they got me a gift or not. I told them that all that matters is the fact that we are all friends, and even though we can have some rough times and some disagreements, we are together in the long run and nothing can destroy the bond between us. Still to this day, I refuse to walk on that trail that heads towards the mall in fear that the panther may come back and kidnap me once again. That is the story of my terrible twelfth birthday.