The Animal Whisperer

When Ruth Bradshaw, 41, from essex, started hearing voices, she couldn't believe who was trying to reach her…

- Emma Rossiter, Victoria Burt

Sitting playing with our family cat, I suddenly got a weird feeling.

She’s cold, I thought. So I leapt up and grabbed a blanket. ‘There you go, Clancy – now you’ll be warm,’ I smiled, as she curled up in it.

Clancy purred back at me, as if saying thank you.

It was 1985 and I was 8 years old. I’d always had a strong connection to our pets.

Actually, I’d always connected with any animal.

It was almost as if I knew exactly what they wanted, as if they spoke to me.

‘Don’t be silly. You’ve just got a wild imagination,’ my mum Thea, now 70, would say.

Animals can’t talk, you’ve just got good instincts, I’d tell myself.

I grew up, and got a job in marketing.

Only, I’d often get a weird feeling creep over me.

Once, I visited a friend’s farm, and I just knew what the animals were thinking – if they were happy or sad.

As if they were talking to me. Can’t be… I thought. In September, 2006, I started a side business offering holistic aromatherapy, spent years juggling two careers.

My heart was more in helping others.

And so, in October 2008, I went on a conservation project in Madagascar.

Trekking through the blistering jungle with a team of people, I suddenly went cold.

Everything around me felt darker and hostile.

I couldn’t shake the feeling someone was looking at me. Then…