[Fwd: Fw: A Touching Story...........Have you ever been hugged by and eagle????]

[Guest guest]

-------- Original Message --------

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 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 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 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.

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

magnificent spirit as Freedom.

Hope you enjoy this.

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