"Thought it was fake. Won $500,000 and bought a house with it."

I'm a New York City-based Staff Writer who enjoys covering lifestyle, relationships, and women's content.

"A few days later, she gets a call letting her know she won something. She was overjoyed and even threw out our old vacuum. I go with her to pick up from the county office, and we find out she did NOT win a vacuum. She won a cat from the humane society next door. Everyone won a cat. 100 people won a free cat from the Humane Society. She was SO disgruntled, but had never failed to redeem a prize, and she wanted the BEST cat, so we hastened over to the humane society. And that's how we got our family's first cat, Cat. He was the best thing that ever happened to her. Even better than that vacuum she wanted."

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.Β