I read a love story yesterday, a true love story…one with giving and taking, with drama and resolution, sacrificial love, and a happy ending.  And in case you haven’t read it yet, I am posting it here, via an email sent to me and verified on snopes.  You will not forget Jeff and Freedom’s story.    Slainte, Lisa

                                                               Freedom and  Jeff
Freedom and  I have been together 11 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-Hodgkin’s  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 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  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.