One Shot

Michael, not Mikey

7. "I'm not a doll, you know. Stop treating me like one."

I knew it wasn't good-bye. It couldn't be. She would get better. This sickness between us would go away and we would be together again. We had to be okay.

It was still odd for me to think that we were together, not only as friends, but as scholars and colleagues – equals. I was, and still am, a pet. Yes, I may be a pet, but that didn't change that I was fully aware and a sentient being.

Pets are biological constructions who are fully aware and yet not autonomous – legal speak for able to function on our own and make decisions for ourselves. Five-inch-tall living dolls for the amusement of others. We are, in a word, powerless to determine our own fates. Some of us have good owners, but others are not as fortunate.

I decided early on that I wasn't going to be entirely powerless. Yes, I may be a genetically modified sub-strand of the human race measuring, personally speaking, five-and-a-quarter inches tall, but that didn't limit my intellect or ability to learn.

Conditioning taught me to be obedient, but my will kept me unbroken. The rules told me where the lines were, and my creativity found ways to bend those rules to my will. I knew how far I could push the line with my first owner before I was surrendered to Second Chance, a shelter for pets like me. My next owner insisted on keeping me for only a month before finding my, as he called it, "feet dragging," unacceptable.

When I was sold for that third time, I was certain I was going to be returned or treated like an insignificant, unintelligent being like my other two owners. I didn't listen when I was loaded into the carrier, and I ensured I avoided eye-contact with the woman who purchased me. I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of pleadingly looking into her eyes in hopes of gaining sympathy.

When we arrived at her home, however, this was not the case at all.

Caroline, sweet Caroline, was unlike any human I came into contact with. From the first day, she talked to me like an actual person. She made eye-contact with me when she opened my carrier and apologized for anything any human might've done to me. When I asked why, Caroline simply explained she wanted a companion and friend, but she moved around a lot since she traveled so much for work that she didn't have any constant in her life.

That's what she wanted me to be. A constant – a friend. She didn't want to force a friendship, and Caroline said if I simply wanted to exist separately from her, I could do so.

The main thing was she wanted to help get someone, a pet, out of a bad situation. She once agreed with having pets, but an impactful conversation with a doctor friend of hers who lived out of town somewhere, I honestly didn't remember where she said because my ears were ringing too loudly, about the mentality and sentience of pets. He told her that pets were just like people and that having a conversation with a pet when they felt free to speak their mind would tell her everything she needed to know.

Her opinion changed after that, and this is when she purchased me.

She made it clear I could pursue my own interests if I wanted to stay while she traveled. She also said I could use any resource she had to improve my life as I saw fit.

Needless to say, I was in absolute shock and thrilled beyond expression. Caroline let me adjust to my new home with her for the next month though, in all honesty, I only needed a week to feel perfectly at ease in her presence. Her hands were never probative, and she always asked before moving me, and it was always optional.

I had even run a few tests, telling her to wait while she was walking or asking for a moment after she asked if I wanted to go with her from one room to the next. Without question, she listened.