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. Both wings were broken, her
left wing in 4 places. 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. Yahoo!
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
somehow 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
coarse 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's.
Hope you enjoy this.
Jeff
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