Over the past few years, ICON has blessed me with mentors, friends, seekers of knowledge and last, but not least kindred spirits. While the encounters with mentors allows me to increase my computer skills and friends encourage my faith in humanity, kindred spirits provided me with the luxury of knowing that I am not the only person to rescue creatures in distress.

My ICON friend and I were talking about the rescue of a swan that had an encounter with a car. We were talking about what it was like having that size beak merely inches from one’s face.

"Once we tried rescuing an eagle that was hit by a car," my ICON friend told me. At that point she had my complete attention. I told her that when I rescued the swan I had a friend with me as well. My friend Mabel stopped the traffic while I tried to summon courage to pick up the injured bird. I knew the force that resided in a swan’s beak. But I had help. A man who stopped for the rescue operation got out of his pickup and walked over, picked up the swan and said:

"Where do you want him?"

I had a new car with off-white interior and there was no guarantee that the swan was house-broken.

"In the back seat," I said.

He looked at the 72 Buick Riviera, shook his head and proceeded across the road swan and all. My friend Mabel got out of the car and opened the rear car door for the man. He carefully settled the swan on the back seat. "Good Luck" he said as he closed the car door and walked away.  We didn’t have a blanket to secure the swan and we took off with hope and a prayer. We took the swan to my veterinarian who by that time was accustomed to the unusual type of patient I occasionally brought in. He too saw the swan and he too had that close encounter with the beak.

"Thank God we don’t have to do mouth to mouth resuscitation here," he quipped.

After he completed the examination he turned to me and said:

"If my wife ever dumps me, I want her to let me out in front of your house, ‘cause you take in everything."

I still remember that moment. The swan survived and so did I.

My ICON friend was not that fortunate.

"We were in the middle of the Desert, two hours from the nearest town," she told me. And the state was Arizona. The bird did not survive. He was a Bald eagle and Bald Eagles were at that time an endangered species. The only human allowed picking up an eagle alive or dead are the Indians. My friend was not aware of the legal implication of that type of rescue. My friend is a natural blonde. She couldn’t pass for an Indian and the authorities that came to her house had doubts about the rescue operation. My friend and her mother found themselves threatened with chains, handcuffs and jail time not to mention the fine that went with being in position of an eagle dead or alive.

"That bird had at least a six-foot wingspread," my ICON friend told me.

"I can believe that," I responded. I was sure the swan’s wings were about the same size.

"What about the beak?" I asked.

She thought about it for a moment and then responded the same way my vet responded twenty years ago.

"We weren’t thinking about mouth to beak resuscitation," was her statement.

We agreed that what we thought when we engaged in a rescue operation of that kind was to provide another chance at life and if that was no longer possible, a dignified death. There is nothing dignified about life being ground in to the asphalt by the speed and weight of an oncoming car. I find it comforting to know that there are others who think the same way. While ICON is not usually associated with wildlife rescue operation, I am always grateful to ICON for all that ICON provides, especially contact with kindred spirits.