FREEDOM AND JEFF -- A Story Worth Sharing
from the March / April 2017 WISP
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A couple years ago we attended a talk where several resident birds were presented to the audience as part of a fund raiser, including a certain bald eagle with a “left wing that never quite healed correctly.” I’ve attached a photo that I took that afternoon. Looks like she’s still doing just fine.
Not many people get a picture of this proud bird snuggled up next to them!
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Jeff’s Story
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 four 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 eight 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 eight 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!!
Hope you enjoyed this!
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from the March / April 2017 WISP
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Actually, it could be spring before that happens, but circumstances warrant that I’d better start looking
now, just in case the contingency contract on Sunny Brook goes through before its April deadline, and we’re
suddenly stuck with nowhere to go.
Yes, Sunny Brook went up for sale by owner at the end of October, and two and one-half weeks later, we
had a contract. The buyers, however, need to sell their beautiful home out of state first, and they have five
months in which to do it. Meanwhile, the search has begun for us (the sellers).
I have looked at several possibilities in this area. I really like Cedaredge and have confined my search
to Delta County. Doug and I did return to Pagosa Springs to have a look around. Unfortunately, property prices have skyrocketed in that area, due to the Durango “effect” (outrageous housing prices in that college town) and outlying areas have suddenly become very desirable. Kind of what happened to Aspen when I lived there in the ’70s-’80s. No one except the wealthy could afford to buy anything in that cute but sophisticated ski town.
I have lived in several places since leaving my Wisconsin homestead at age 19. Michigan was home for seven years (during college), with a summer spent in Kentucky; then a brief return to Wisconsin before my first husband and I, along with toddler son Ryan, landed in Aspen, Colo. We were able to purchase a manufactured home 20 miles away from Aspen, and lived there for six years, commuting to our jobs and adding Marty (in 1980) to our family.
Then it was almost a year in Oregon before we returned to Colorado, this time to Delta. That’s when our youngest son, Scott, arrived (in 1985). After the divorce, I moved to Paonia to be closer to work, and for the next 17 years I made my home there with my second husband. Circumstances with his health beckoned us to move to a lower altitude, so reluctantly we sold our mountain property on Stucker Mesa and bought property in southeastern Ohio that bordered Wayne National Forest.
Two years and some months later, I sold the home and moved back to Colorado, to Pagosa Springs with my dog and my cat. Within six months I met Doug, who moved into the cabin across the road. The two of us teamed up and tried out Washington state (in Forks), but found we missed the Southwest ... so, back to Colorado.
From our rental in Bayfield, we focused on finding a place to buy. Last March we put an offer on this charming minifarm outside Cedaredge ... and we moved to this quaint area of Delta County last May. It was a dream come true ... but, unfortunately, dreams can fade. After seven months, we made the decision to put Sunny Brook up for sale, not realizing it could mean a winter move.
But I’ve moved in winter before. It was January when I moved from Delta to Paonia, and January again when Ethan and I moved from Paonia to New Matamoras, Ohio. And now that January is here again, it looks like I may have escaped another January move. Hopefully, the weather will ease off before we have to give up this beautiful place.
Eileen, my real estate agent, has been showing me a lot of places in this area — some good, some not so much — but I know that when the time is right, the perfect place for me will materialize. For instance, I would like to have a mountain view, room for my chickens, and a garage. After this huge home we live in now, it will take some getting used to if I move to a smaller place, but I’ve always been able to turn a house into a home, and will be able to get a dog and a cat again.
Stay tuned for the next episode of “Wispy House Hunters!” Nobody knows what the next couple of months will bring. But isn’t that what makes life exciting?
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Ann Ulrich Miller, publisher of Wisp, is a novelist and memoir writer. Visit her Author Web site at AnnUlrichMiller.com.
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MARCH MADNESS MEANS MOVING AGAIN
