A creative non-fiction piece about animals, empathy and autonomy.
When I was eleven I saved up my birthday and Christmas money to buy a Furby. The original kind. One of these. When you turned it upside down it wailed in a warbly voice, No, no, please, don’t, and some other words about being scared. The pronunciation wasn’t completely clear, so you had to do it a few times to figure out what it was saying. I felt, and still feel, uncomfortable about doing this.
You can read the full piece here: