Bramble was an abandoned baby ferret found wandering frightened and starving in Aberdeen's Duthie Park at 6 weeks old. The animal wardens handed her into the local cat and dog home and that's where we met her. From the start we knew there was something different about her. All ferrets are playful, cheeky and very intelligent but Bramble had another quality about her that set her apart. She had an almost telepathic empathy with humans.
In her short life she managed to achieve an awful lot and she did more to improve the image of ferrets than anyone would believe. On her walks in the park and at the beach she would draw crowds and loved to lap up the attention. She seemed to know instinctively how to behave with each child who came to see her. If they were shy or unsure she would sit quietly in their arms and if they were boisterous she would play chase with them.
Bramble's ability to sense what kind of attention someone needed led me to use her in therapy with adults with severe mental health problems and it was wonderful to see how she could make someone smile for the first time in years. Seeing how Bramble reacted to clients also gave me cues that helped my work with the mentally ill too.
In her first year with us Bramble was also a regular in Karen's salon; she loved hiding rollers and playing with clients, especially little old ladies.
I first took Bramble into the studio with Pamela for a laugh but she enjoyed it so much she became a regular visitor and when I was shooting my calendar last year, she ended up in two months. A Roman theme with Tryste was followed by an outdoor shoot in Duthie Park with Taz, where she had been abandoned 4 years earlier. During this shoot, with Taz half-naked, we drew a crowd of onlookers, who dashed over as soon as I put my camera down. I thought they might be wanting Taz's autograph but they completely ignored her and crowded round Bramble (leaving Taz free to change un-noticed behind them).
Last year Bramble moved from modelling to acting, with the role of "Mini Shek's Ferret" in the comedy "Dubbed and Dangerous 3".
Shortly after filming, Bramble's illness took hold. She started to sleep more, her belly began to swell and over the past year she aged very quickly. She still wanted to play lots but didn't have the energy to keep up for long. Yesterday she took a sudden turn for the worst and we noticed that she was unable to stand, she couldn't even make it to the toilet or her food bowl.
We arranged to take her to the vet's in the morning and took her to bed with us, leaving a newspaper on the bed in case she needed the toilet. This morning we awoke to find she was gone. She knew her time was up and somehow she had found the strength to go round and say goodbye to all the other animals. We found her prostrate in the living room with the two cats standing guard over her. When we picked her up she said her goodbyes to the kids and we took her to the vet.
The swelling in her belly was a large inoperable tumour and it was now causing her so much difficulty and discomfort that the kindest thing was to put her to sleep. Bramble was buried this evening at her favourite spot beside the River Don with her Gromit teddy.
I cannot begin to explain the loss. Bramble was more than a pet or a friend. We all feel like we have lost a child.