An Eagle Named Freedom: My True Story of a Remarkable Friendship
By: Jeff Guidry / Narrated By: John Pruden
Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
So astounding, and some things so moving, I Googled the heck outta Freedom!
Yeh, yeh, yeh. I’ve been burned by many a moving story before, so you’d better BELIEVE I checked the story contained within An Eagle Named Freedom out! I phonetically determined that the wildlife rescue he volunteered at was named Sarbi or Sarvi and discovered one named Sarvey in the Pacific Northwest where Freedom is listed as still belonging to their community education/outreach program. Then I checked Snopes, and I found that they have the story and the photos listed as True.
So HUZZAH! A wonderful and touching story about a man saving an eagle and an eagle saving a man (You know: That old trope!) can be listened to and cherished without fear.
Guidry was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Stage III, whilst he was a volunteer at the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center (See? I looked up the whooole name of the place), and he endured many sessions of chemo for it. At the same time, he continued developing his bond with Freedom, a young eagle that was found emaciated and covered in lice after plummeting from her nest for whatever reason.
What I liked were the very spiritual aspects of the story. The eagles and hawks from the Center were sometimes used as part of Native American gatherings and celebrations/spiritual ceremonies, and Jeff really opened himself up to learn from these experiences. During his lowest moments, suffering the complications from chemo, he’d find himself with visions of Freedom soaring through the air (Which she could NOT do due to injuries), but it was as though the two friends were flying together. It gave him the strength to go in for yet another round of the poison that kills even as it heals.
There are also stories of the other animals who were saved such as bears that Jeff helped raise, helped send to out-of-state sanctuaries. There are raccoons galore.
And I became overly fond of the squirrel he and Linda, his partner, saved and gave a home to. So fond that naturally I wept big ol’ soggy tears when nature took its course.
With all these animal stories thrown in to add to the truly moving story of the friendship between man and bird, you KNOW I was all over this audiobook! Absolutely my cup o’ tea!
Now John Pruden gets dinged by many reviewers when he narrates works such as this. And to be honest, the man is totally my go-to guy when it comes to military nonfiction but does indeed falter when it comes to lighter works. Well, as luck would have it, this time, in this audiobook, I don’t think he did an awful job (Oh, gosh! Are those words of praise, or what?!). I mean, sure, someone else probably would have done a better job, but I think Pruden here captured some playfulness necessary when talking of animals, and he certainly delivered just the right tones when Guidry wrote/spoke of the bonds he had with his friends at the Center. And he CERTAINLY captured the fear and exhaustion a cancer patient experiences.
Animal stories, with my guy Pruden?
I must say: I was indeed pleased!
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