Jeff Guidry - An Eagle Named Freedom: My True Story of a Remarkable Friendship

T HE EAGLE WAS YOUNG and she was badly injured. The bird was about three feet tall and probably weighed eight pounds, though the long plumage of a young eagle made her appear bigger. Her feathers and her eyes were dark brown.

It was August 12, 1998. The eagle looked up at me and my old life was over, a new second life begun. I had been volunteering at the wildlife center for almost two years, and Id helped with hurt eagles before, but this time was different. Freedom would become my friend and my teacher. With her I would discover and deepen parts of myself. Two years later, when I was diagnosed with stage 3 non-Hodgkins lymphoma, my third life began. But Im getting ahead of myself.

O N THE DAY SHE was brought in, two other people were working with the eagle, good friends of mine, the director of Sarvey Wildlife Care Center, Kaye Baxter, and Sarveys most dedicated volunteer, Crazy Bob Jones. I couldnt tell by looking how badly the eagle was injured.

Kaye said, Lets check her out. I picked up the eagle and held her as gently as I could. Kaye carefully stretched out one wing, then the other; she ran her fingers along the bones of the wing. Theyre both broken, she said. Jeff, can you take her to the vet?

I looked at the eagle and said, Yes. I was drawn to her more than any other wild creature I had seen. I didnt question why.

Even now after eleven years of a growing connection, sometimes the immediate power of my feelings for Freedom, as we came to call her, can seem weird to me. Feeling invested is a natural part of rescue and caring for wild ones, and I took Freedoms well-being personally right away. But there was an intensity that went beyond personal.

On the drive to the vet, I could see pain and trust in her eyes. I hoped she could sense my caring as I spoke softly to her. Our conversation went beyond the words, and our unspoken connection was the beginning of the miracle that continues to unfolda miracle of mutual healing, a miracle of deep friendship.

The next phase of the miracle was a hard phase for me and those I love. In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with stage 3 non-Hodgkins lymphoma. There were eight months of grueling chemotherapy. Freedom came to my rescue.

As powerful as that time was, it didnt occur to me to write much about it. I wrote a few pieces for the Sarvey web-site, contributed to a few blogs, appeared on a radio showand then on March 6, 2008, I wrote the bones of our story in an e-mail to my friend Gayle, who works in wildlife activism. She had asked me about Freedom, and when I told her that there was a story to go with the pictures I had sent her, she said shed love to see it.

As I wrote her the story, I vividly remembered my first encounter with Freedom and how Freedom had been one of my most important allies during my battle with cancer. It felt good to share this information with a friend in the work. But I would never have expected the long-range consequences of that e-mail.

Hey Gayle, here is the information you asked for about Freedom and me. 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 here at the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vets 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 lie in; I used to sit and talk to her, urging her to live, to fight, and she would lie there looking at me with those big brown eyes.

We had to tube feed her for 46 weeks, and by then she still couldnt stand. Finally the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldnt stand in a week. It looked like death was winning.

She was going to be put down on a Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon. I didnt want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldnt 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 dowel cage. 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 (they are a kind of leather leash around each leg), 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 hairthe whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. She would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancertime 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 hadnt 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 dont know how long. That was a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she came in. This is a very special bird.

I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a magnificent spirit as Freedoms. Hope you enjoy this.

Gayle told me she had been so moved by my e-mail that she wanted to forward it along with pictures. I said, Sure, and promptly forgot about the whole thing.

The recipients of Gayles forward were moved too. They passed the story on. In a couple of weeks, thousands of messages flooded my e-mail in-box from all over the world. People wrote because they had cancer, because they loved wild creatures, and because they just wanted to be near the miracle. So many messages came in that I had to open up a new e-mail account.

I knew then that it was time to put the story of an eagle and a man saving each others lives out to the world. I never would have believed until that day in 1998 that there was an eagle on her way to meet me. And I never would have imagined how deeply she would change my life. Id be content if everyone who reads this finds a little hope that miracles are real.

J EFF G UIDRY

O NE O CTOBER DAY IN 1992, I suddenly really saw an eagle for the first time. I was driving through the mountains when a huge shadow came over the car. I looked out and up. There was an eagle just ahead of me. It was flying so close to the car that I swear I could see every white feather in its tail gleaming in the early morning sun. I was transfixed.

After that first astonishing sighting, I began to see eagles everywhere in my new home in the Pacific Northwest. My partner, Lynda, and I had moved to eagle country in 1989. I was fascinated by eagles and started reading about the birds and the beliefs of the native people who hold them sacred.

Pretty soon I was a walking eagle encyclopedia, so I was intrigued in 1992 when Lynda told me shed seen something about eagle watching on the news. The Eagle Watchers mission is to educate the public about bald eagles. They also wanted to have the public view the birds in designated areas on the Skagit River, one of the largest gatherings of bald eagles in the lower forty-eight states, where the birds follow the salmon to the Skagit feeding grounds. It was important to have designated areas, because if people stop all along the eleven-mile stretch of the river between Concrete and Marblemount and disturb feeding eagles, the eagles will leave the area, which is prime winter feeding habitat for them.