When I was six, I started picking up the emotions of those around me. I didn’t mean to: it felt like people were just leaking emotions everywhere they went. The voices got louder until I couldn’t stand it anymore. It was such a battle to keep them out of my head that I’d run and hide in the forest to get away from everyone.

It didn’t help. Well, it helped a little, because although I’d escaped the human emotions that made me feel like I was drowning, I discovered the animal emotions, ...