The man and the eagle, Awesome

Not many people get a picture of this proud bird snuggled

up next to them.

Freedom and Jeff

Freedom and I have been together 10 years this summer.

She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her

left wing doesn't open all the way even after surgery, it was

broken in 4 places. She's my baby.

When Freedom came in she could not stand and both wings

were broken. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We

made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her

to the vet's office. From then on, I was always around her.

We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was

loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lay in. I used

to sit and talk to her, urging her to live, to fight; and she

would lay there looking at me with those big brown eyes.

We also had to tube feed her for weeks.

This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn't

stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to

euthanize her if she couldn't stand in a week. You know

you don't want to cross that line between torture and

rehab, and it looked like death was winning. She was going

to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in

on that Thursday afternoon. I didn't want to go to the

center that Thursday, because I couldn't bear the thought

of her being euthanized; but I went anyway, and when I

walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear. I went

immediately back to her cage; and there she was, standing

on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I

was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day.

We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to

glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and then to

jesses, and we started doing education programs for schools

in western Washington. We wound up in the newspapers,

radio (believe it or not) and some TV. Miracle Pets even did

a show about us.

In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins

lymphoma. I had stage 3, which is not good (one major

organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of

chemo. Lost the hair - the whole bit. I missed a lot of work.

When I felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey and take

Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in
my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened

time and time again.

Fast forward to November 2000, the day after

Thanksgiving. I went in for my last checkup. I was told that

if the cancer was not all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then
my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did
the tests; and I had to come back Monday for the results. I

went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone.

So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and take the

big girl out for a walk. It was misty and cold. I went to her

flight and jessed her up, and we went out front to the top

of the hill. I hadn't said a word to Freedom, but some how

she knew. She looked at me and wrapped both her wings

around me to where I could feel them pressing in on my

back (I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she touched my

nose with her beak and stared into my eyes, and we just

stood there like that for I don't know how long. That was

a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she

came in. This is a very special bird.

On a side note: I have had people who were sick come up to

us when we are out, and Freedom has some kind of hold on

them. I once had a guy who was terminal come up to us and

I let him hold her. His knees just about buckled and he

swore he could feel her power course through his body. I

have so many stories like that.

I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a

magnificent spirit as Freedom.

Hope you enjoy this.

Jeff

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*contribution by an email sent to me from my amazing aunt RiverEyes!