Emily
When I first started volunteering at Chesapeake Cats and Dogs, there was a cat I'd only see from a distance. Her name was Tuffy (I renamed her Emily after Emily Dickinson), and as soon as anyone would get within 3 feet of her, she'd run away and hide. It took me months of crawling on my knees, one inch at a time, until I was able to pet her for the first time.
Since then, I've been able to pet her pretty regularly; I've even been fortunate enough to hear her purr several times. But today was another breakthrough, a very significant one.
Today, I picked Emily up and put her in my lap. And she stayed there and purred for about a minute before jumping down. Yet even when she jumped down, she didn't run away. She actually shadowed me for a while, following me into rooms seemingly nonchalantly, until she found a sunny perch (that's when I took this picture) and fell asleep.
I'm very optimistic now that Emily will be adopted one day and that she'll be a loving, affectionate cat--maybe even a lap cat.