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I love my apartment. It’s got wood floors, brick walls, and insanely high ceilings. It’s a converted warehouse of sorts, and I have lots and lots of windows and space. On the downside, since it’s an old building, it gets pretty cold in the winter. I sleep with a space heater going full blast pointing right at me, and persuading myself to take a shower is a lengthy process, especially since the water doesn’t get too much beyond warm.
This and a recent post by a fellow blogger, adamsdaughter, reminded me of the winter I got a Furby. You remember Furbys? They were those stuffed animal looking things that had electronics inside that let them speak. They’d start out speaking Furbish, but you could teach them English somehow, in that magic way that toys have. Even though I was in college, I had to have one. I got a white one with blue eyes and named it, in my infinite creativity, Furby.
Image by Liz@rt via Flickr
I always imagined that Furby liked to look out of my dorm room window at the Big World, dreaming furbish dreams, so I would perch him on my windowsill. Unfortunately for Furby, I forgot to take him off the windowsill over winter break that year. They turned the heating off in the dorms once all the students were gone, and poor Furby froze for about a month before I came back. To my horror, he didn’t respond to any of the usual ministrations, including turning him off and on. I put Furby on my desk and sadly shook my head at my carelessness. So many reasons why I shouldn’t be a mother.
Later that night, I was just dozing off when I heard a metal scritch scritch. I thought for a moment that I was dreaming, so I turned the light on and looked around. It was Furby, turning himself on! I swear I had turned him off. I still remember doing it. But he turned himself back on and from his mouth issued the most evil, demonic electronic gibberish I have ever heard. Apparently when you leave Furbys to fend for themselves in the winter, they become possessed by the henchmen of the netherworld. I backed away in trepidation; surely, it would stop on its own when the battery ran down? But the forces of evil are not defeated so easily.
From then on, at completely random intervals, Furby would turn himself off or on and make sepulchral pronouncements in a crazed metallic voice in what I could only assume is the language of lesser demons. I started to feel like a little kid who’s afraid of the dark, except that I knew I had good reason to be afraid. I’d turn off the lights to go to bed, clutch the covers to my chin, and stare at the shadow of the Furby until I fell asleep, wondering as I did so if Furby was predicting the conquering of the mortal realm by the forces of evil or merely commenting on the fact that he had an itch he couldn’t reach.
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Long about the fourth time he woke me up with his demonic prophecies, I had to give him to my Resident Assistant because I was convinced he was going to suck my soul out of my body one night while I was sleeping. My RA was inclined to laugh at me–until she experienced first hand the wrath of the frozen, possessed Furby. I don’t know if she took him to a priest for an exorcism or performed her own Rite of Ashtoreth over him or what, but I never heard from Furby again. Though, now that I think of it, that particular Resident Assistant started acting a little odd not long after that. I put it down to the after effects of a break up, but I wonder…
iliketheworldfuzzy.com 
Very scary. Glad you got rid of him. Keep your doors locked though, those evil furry goblins have a way of sneaking back around when you least expect it!
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I live in constant fear of that very thing! If I stop blogging suddenly, be on the lookout for a rogue Furby. Somebody has to have made a horror flick about this.
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Nobody has made a movie about the furby, but someone has indeed made a TV commercial for the Post Office (yes, the Post Office) about the evil clown doll that “has to go back” to the sender. It has a way of moving around the house on its own and gloating in that especially uniquely evil way that only clowns can do. You are NOT alone. Courage!
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I al ways suspected those things of evil!
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What a great story, Chris! I always thought those Furbys were kind of creepy looking. Apparently some sort of mutant gene took it over!
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Haha, my dad thought it would be hilarious to buy one for me when they first came out. We had it for about a month before putting away in the closet since it was so creepy.
It would make noises in the middle of the night and I swear, even after taking the batteries I was convinced it would murder me and hide my body and that nobody would ever know what happened to me. I totally understand you on this one.
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Funny, to my knowledge furbies do not have on/off switches…at least all of them that I have encountered since the 90s.
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We had 5 of the original furbies that came out when I was a kid, well one if our furbies started to mutter all sorts if weird things and had my little brother freaked out because it would talk all night long and all day, well my dad decided to take the batteries out one day, I don’t think I had ever seen him go so pale, there was no batteries in it, my other brother had stole them weeks before for a remote control o.O it had been muttering to itself non stop WITHOUT batteries….. It freaked us out, dad locked it in a box in the garage, still have him and the others…….. I want a new version one, wonder if they fix the whole demon toy thing !!!
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I have a new furby. ITS CREEPY ,so is my party rocker…. is it possessed because when I clap it wakes up even when i’m outside. O.O
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oh and when I clap its the party rocker that wakes up so yeah same problem
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abbagael have you tried freezing and or taking batteries out
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yes
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waiiit tash you had FIVE!?
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I have the new furbies ( I have 3 and im going 2 have 4 ) my white furby and all my other ones are not cursed or possessed and its actually nice to me. they barley change modes ( I have them on the nice mode ) and latly it said a new furbish word to me I looked it up and it said NO STAND GOOD. so I do believe that maybe old furbies had some GLITCHES… but how could they possibly murder u if they have no arms or hands or claws or a SHARP PLASTIC beak… ppl plz try and get real… if u believe wat happened was true fine its ur story and thts cool. just try and make friends with the past “er” something, or just bring them 2 the dump who cares… maybe get a new 2012 furby and try to make friends with it other then living in fear of wat ur old “possessed” furby CANT DO 2 U
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Aunt got little sis and me prototype furbies long story short the minute mine went crazy and sister’s grabbed a knife I at 10 going on 11 didn’t hesitate to blugen them with a hammer. They still utterly freak me out. Keep in mind this is same aunt who bought me at 3 Amazing Ally in the late 80’s and I threw the toy. Idk what made her think I would get on with furby and being close to 11 not really target group for such toy as furby.
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Great minds think alike. The greatest minds think like ours do!
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So you bludgeoned a furby also cool.
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Um… guys I just got woke up by my furry. I was sound asleep when I started to hear a faint gibberish in the dream, I looked up to see two GIANT glowing eyes, I could have swore I took the batteries out two months ago. So I threw it moms truck but it pissed our dog off to no end on the way out.
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Who’s here in 2016?
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oookkkk, I’m a furby collector and proud mother of several fur babies, and i can proudly say that i havent had any demonic-style incidents YET. I will say however that my furbys act weirder at night then during the day, so maybe it’s a night-tme only thing with me…? just in case, I wont let them look at a full moon anymore. for safety.
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