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

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"I want to fly like an eagle til I'm free.
Fly like an eagle, let my spirit carry me." -- Steve Miller Band, 1976

"And I will raise you up on eagle's wings" -- Old Hymn

"Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not get tired; they will walk and not become weary." -- Isaiah, 40:31

This is one of the most beautiful stories about how love can transform wildlife and human lives. Jeff Guidry saves an injured eagle whose wings were broken. Traumatized and no longer able to fly, the eagle named Freedom relies on her human protectors to act as her wings.

Jeff Guidry's life changed as soon as he met the injured eaglet. He worked tirelessly with the team at Sarvey Wildlife Care Center. Fortunately for all, the eagle recovers and Jeff, who was a volunteer at Sarvey became solely responsible for the beautiful raptor.

In 2000 Jeff Guidry became as grounded as his eagle, Freedom. He was diagnosed with Stage 3 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Equally traumatized as his beautiful bird was when he rescued her, Jeff Guidry receives a wonderful gift from his bird. Coping with the grueling rounds of chemotherapy, Jeff fought back with a spirit not too different from his indomitable eagle. He walked Freedom regularly and watching his bird develop strength and confidence inspired him to do likewise.

Jeff was declared cancer free and the bond he had with his eagle was nothing short of miraculous. The day he received the good news, Jeff rushed to the Sarvey Center to walk his beautiful bird. The bond between the two was extraordinary; Freedom seemed to sense her friend's spectacular recovery. She threw her large wings around Jeff's shoulders, making Jeff the recipient of an aquiline hug.

By March of 2008, Jeff shared his avian experience with his friend Gayle via e-mail. By going to bat for a bird in need and sharing her story, that e-mail found its way around the world. People marveled at the kind man who gave an eagle a "chance at life" and how she in turn helped him to reclaim his.

This is a beautiful story that might even make you cry. I cannot recommend it highly enough and all who read this will be raised up on eagle's wings.

An Eagle Named Freedom is Jeff Guidry's heartwarming, and often heartbreaking, 10-year memoir of his incredible life and bond with a Pacific Northwest American Bald Eagle named Freedom. In 1998 while Jeff is volunteering at Sarvey Wildlife Care Center in Washington State, a female baby eagle is brought in with two broken wings and is severely emaciated. She is only 3 feet tall, and weighs just 10 pounds. Jeff and coworker Kaye Baxter transfer the hurt bird to a veterinary clinic where they set and bind the wings hoping for the best. Freedom is brought back to Sarvey and undergoes months of healing. Initially showing no hope of recovery, she inches her way toward trust when Jeff shows her patience, love, and security, with his soft voice and protective care. Yet although she slowly gains her weight back, she never regains full use of her wings and will never take flight again. Sarvey's staff however is thrilled that she lived and decide to keep her for educational training, allowing Jeff to take on that task.

Jeff begins the slow process of glove training Freedom. Bird and man quickly bond, showing incredible patience, intuition, and love for each other's needs to make this attempt work. Jeff's eagle adapts easily and quickly graduates to being held with anklets and jesses. Soon this dynamic pair begin touring the local educational road-shows to educate the public about wildlife. Freedom and Jeff entertain Boy Scout troops, Native American Indian pow-wows, schools for children, and various other public awareness groups that need to learn about protecting the natural world around us.

But as life has it, good times don't usually last forever. Two years later after Jeff and Freedom are introduced, Jeff is diagnosed with type 3 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A lump on the side of his neck is instantly biopsied and pronounced malignant. The next 8 months are the most difficult Jeff will ever spend as he undergoes the hellish treatment of Chemotherapy that will nearly kill him. What saves Jeff's life, what keeps his flame burning and the will to live strong, is the unconditional love and kinship he receives from Freedom. This book is a tender sweet story of Jeff's deep love to heal his eagle, and the return gift that eagle hands back to him full-circle. When 8 months later Jeff's treatments show his body cancer free, he head's straight for the Sarvey center to let Freedom be the first to hear the good news. Taking Freedom out of her cage, the birds' keen insight knew Jeff was well and wrapped her giant wings around Jeff's shoulders in a loving protective embrace as if to say " we did it!"

In addition to the precious story of a man and his bird, the reader gets to enjoy many endearing stories of the other animal residents at Sarvey. Some tales humorous, some sweet, some heartbreaking, but this is not a book full of tear-jerking sadness. It is a shining light and dedication to those in the world who volunteer to keep our wildlife friends safe from harm, and assist in their well being in times of need. This memoir is about hope, never giving up, persistence to attain your goals no matter how dire life can be, and to treat our animal friends with as much love and respect we would our own family members. This is may be a short little book, but it is filled to the brim with a plentiful helping of inspiration for all of us that have a deep love and admiration for animals. An Eagle Named Freedom is written from the heart, penned well, and accompanied by wonderful color photographs of Jeff, Freedom and their friends at Sarvey. Nice story!

First off, if you're a Barry Lopez/Annie Dillard-type nature writer fan, you won't find profound insights or deep reflections or pristine, original prose in this memoir of the relationship of the author with a young, mended eagle. But that's fine. Books serve different functions, and in the case of An Eagle Named Freedom, you get straightforward, journalistic prose; you also get entry into an emotional connection which in itself implies a certain philosophy. Don't read this book for its insights, necessarily: read it for its "mission." It's pretty much about a regular guy (being a back-up, albeit excellent rock musician shouldn't put you on the list of cultural icons). However, the lyrics to this 'narrative song' are a bit like rock ballads: strong on feelings, plain on execution. It could just be that is something the world needs. Not another impressive 'nature writer' but a person with an illness who bonds with a non-human rescued from its own disability, and relates simply his profound experience of bonding. You don't need ideological sophistication or an agenda or a taste for 'stylistically superior' writing to appreciate this book. But your 'ur' self should be able to relate and appreciate it. Imagine if this book about a simple spiritual awakening would sell as many copies or be as popular as Thomas Friedman's best sellers on globalization? It won't, but it's more likely to than the essays you find in The Atlantic or ......(take your pick). This book is about 'globalization' of the spirit. Jeff Guidry's 'journey' from a typical 'nature is nice' kind of guy to 'nature contains answers to my spiritual crisis' has backing by just about all major religions in the world, not to mention specific Native American religions. He doesn't need any footnotes.

I was one of those who first found out about Freedom and Jeff from the widely circulated email that Jeff had originally sent to a friend, but had developed a life of its own. Like most who have commented on the email, I was deeply moved by the touching story of the eagle and the man and forwarded it to all of my friends.

When I saw the book "An Eagle Named Freedom" I ordered it immediately and have just finished reading it; it is both inspiring and saddening as it describes the lives of a young eagle and a man who are brought together by unexpected circumstances; it is a story of faith, hope, and an unusual friendship between an eagle and a man.

Jeff Guidry was a volunteer at the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center at the time a very sick baby eagle was brought in with broken wings. The baby eagle's chances for survival didn't seem too promising but the team at Sarvey began a fight to try and save the baby eagle.

It won't be a spoiler to say the baby eagle survived and came to be known as Freedom; this is the story of that struggle for survival and the bonding that took place between Jeff and Freedom.

Mr. Guidry describes the process in a very interesting, easy to read manner; he also brings in much of the atmosphere that characterizes the Northwest region of the USA. You begin to get a better feeling for the love of the outdoors, the traditions of the native tribes and the general culture that permeates that region.

Mr. Guidry goes on to describe his efforts to help Freedom compensate for his inability to ever fly, and then describes how Freedom helped him deal with the cancer that threatened his life.

The story describes other "wild things" that have an impact on Jeff and Sarvey, Sasha, the playful cougar, and an assortment of birds, bears, and others that are brought to Sarvey for help and rehabilitation. He also tells the story of Mr. Timms, a remarkable little squirrel that wound up living in Jeff and Lynda's home.

Anyone who has loved an animal can relate to this story; all of us who have had the privilege of having an animal share their lives with us can join in the joy and sadness of life and death described in this book which I recommend to all of you.

Jeff Guidry's book, "An Eagle Named Freedom", tells of the bald eagle who over a decade, or so, was integral in the authors life transformation. Yes, it would be hard to imagine if someone congratulated Jeff, say, 15 years ago when he was a west coast professional musician on being a best-selling author, a world-wide cancer survivor inspiration, and an expert raptor handler. I would bet Jeff would think that person was delusional. But, as of the late 2000's Jeff is all of these things as his life changed dramatically. That change was, at first, we learn on purpose because as an accomplished guitarist Jeff had became burned out on life as a professional musician and sought to get away from the business he once was so devoted to. To insure real change he moved from California to Washington with his mate Lynda where he could truly get away from being his former lifestyle - where he could enjoy the great outdoors as well as change.

We learn, though he loved the change, he was still looking for something to involve his interest in nature more. Lynda gave him a pamphlet about a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center and, as fate would have it, that connection jumpstarted the real changes in Jeff he had, seemingly, desired, but had yet to feel completely invigorated by.

Jeff arrives at Sarvey, the wildlife rescue center, thinking he would volunteer on his day off and see if someone like himself could be utilized, hopefully feeling uplifted after what would likely be a lengthy process of learning. At Sarvey, like most volunteered or paid jobs, learning is more like "baptism by fire" and Jeff was working directly with rescued wildlife his first day. It was hard work from the start, but rewards came continually and he immediately loved it. He instantly connected with the director, Kay, and went directly from hoping he would be both helpful and fulfilled to being just short of indispensable next of kin! Reading about the early days at Sarvey give the reader a spiritual feeling that Jeff is exactly where he is suppose to be - all this and, so far, the real story hasn't even introduced us to real subject: Freedom the eagle!

In 2000 Jeff had been at Sarvey approaching two years and his love for the place and the people, especially Kay, the director, and Crazy Bob who was the most active volunteer, had grown. Jeff was happy to give his day off and was feeling the benefits of his radical move to Washington. Things would get more intense, both better and worse. The better occurred when Kay asked Jeff to take a young eagle with broken wings to the vet for diagnosis. The female bird was in critically poor shape with two broken wings and had become emaciated as well. The damage to the left wing was such that even with proper setting and healing the damage was too great for the bird to be able to fly. At Sarvey the first objective is saving the animal and the second is to return it to its natural habitat; whenever an animal could not be introduced back to nature the policy was to insure it lived a quality life in captivity, either at Sarvey or another center. For this young eagle, however, it seemed as if survival would be somewhat of a miracle. By using a feeding tube and providing a low-stress environment it was hopeful the eagle could manage to stand on its feet after a time of healing. Things looked bleak when the bird remained day after day in a laying down position which would be considered too poor in terms of quality-of-life to subject a magnificent raptor to.

Now, I have to ask myself, do I just want to tell the reader the whole story? No, of course not, but what happens next at the brink of euthanizing the eagle truly begins the spiritual connection for Jeff. It's as if Freedom (named later) realizes she will be a force in Jeff's life and she gathers her strength and becomes a survivor so she can awake that same instinct later to Jeff when he will need it. This is where the real inspiration starts and it only builds more powerful and deep as the story progresses. Though I'd love to tell more it would be a disservice to the reader as the joy of reading this story is in the details of the journey that begins with Freedom beating her own odds and surviving.

You do not have to love wildlife to enjoy this book. This book is about humanity, survival, spiritual growth, and love. That all this happens in regard to a connection one man happened to make, in this case with an eagle make it all the more remarkable. It's inspirational first and foremost, but as an animal lover I find it wonderful in that an eagle can be such a bridge to the powerful traits we need to be the masters of our dominion that, I think, God has intended us to be. I highly recommend this book, as well as a very different, yet similar, book named "Wesley The Owl". These books are both powerful affirmations of life and love and as such will only be enriching as well as entertaining to the reader. Simply put, a great read!

I enjoyed this true account of a Rescue Center near my home. The author has a passion for helpless animals that are injured, and the book is about how dealing with these creatures changed his life. (As he changed their lives also)

A quick read, even appropriate for older children.

Take an injured eagle, a wildlife rehab volunteer, a cancer diagnosis, and you have a moving story of mutual healing and the beauty of the human-animal connection. It is also a true story that takes place near where I live in northwestern Washington State.

In addition to the personal story, the reader is shown the highs and lows of volunteering at a wildlife rehab center. Some animals don't make it, and the ones that do are released back into the wild. This can be an emotional roller coaster for their caretakers. Some permanently disabled birds are used for public educational outreach. For me, the importance of this work for future generations was the take-away message of the book.

This book is a good companion to another one about the relationship between a bird and a human: Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process by Irene M. Pepperberg

I highly recommend both of these books. You will never look at a bird the same way again.

What a great story! I generally love true stories and this one lived up to all my expectations. I really loved learning/reading about the authors interaction with Freedom. What a fantastic feel good story. I know there was some health issues that were discussed but overall it was not a depressing story at all. I highly recommend to anyone - this is a good one to keep on the bookshelf!

If you love animals, you are likely to find this book a real page-turning read. I recommend it for that, as well as another very important reason.

The author volunteers at the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center in Washington State. His name is Jeff Guidry, and his beloved, Lynda, plays a wonderful role in the story. One thing this book points out is the healing that animals can bring to humans. That's one reason to volunteer in wildlife care.

One of the most important things this book explains and repeatedly depicts is the difference between wild animals and domestic ones. Some of the animals the center winds up taking care of have been raised by people who thought they could domesticate a wild animal. They thought it was all in how the animal was raised, all about experience.

This is simply not the case, and the animals suffer hugely from people trying this. As the wild animal matures, instincts mature, too, and they are genetic, not from experience. Meanwhile, the animal has been deprived of early experiences it needed to survive in the wild when mature. It can't be tame anymore, and it can't make it in the wild, either.

There are quite a few animals that often fall victim to this human misunderstanding. After a lot of research, the Americans with Disabilities Act has very recently been updated to say that the only animals that qualify to be service animals to people with disabilties and have full public access are dogs and miniature horses. It has been found that other animals are just too unpredictable. Genetics make a huge difference.

Before adopting any animal, it is vital to do careful research. This book is a great story and will also help people understand a little bit more about the needs of wild animals. From there, before adopting any animal, research--a lot!

I was REAL lucky to get this book as a signed gift from the author (semi-direct route via a family member friend); and couldn't put it down.

Jeff Guidry pulls together many separate story lines of both animal & human suffering, hope & TRIUMPH in an inspiring work mixed with very funny animal behavior sidelines as comic releif.

His dedication as a volunteer at an animal shelter even while under some very serious & draining medical treatments is a testiment to the promise that we as humans have to nuture our animal co-habitants of the planet in responsible stewardship of the natural & WILD world. Having known several of his family members mentioned in this story really made it's reading probably more personal for me than other readers---and very satisfying to say the least. THANKS Jeff for sharing your amazing experiences....and very happy endings.

I just wish I could get you in a room with another great animal lover & wild life author I have the pleasure to know: Linda Jo Hunter (Lonesome for Bears: A Woman's Journey in the Tracks of the Wilderness [Paperback]. The synergy there would be pretty incredible !!