What has Patches been up to?

July 1

First the good news.
We found Patches! We hadn't seen him in about two weeks and I was fearing the worst. Then Benie found him living in a new tree! He had moved from the orange tree to a new spot just past the cherry trees. There is a very nice nest in the tree which seems to belong to him.

He seems like a loner as there are not many other squirrels around. I was so happy to see him. And he seemed glad to see me too. Came running over and ate right out of my hand.

I saw him for several days in a row after that. All I needed to do was walk over by his tree and call out his name and he'd come running down to say hello!

And there was more good news: Now that Patches had grown into a big boy it seemed that his patch had finally healed up for good. I was so happy for him!

July 4
Now the bad news.

But it was not to last. A few days later his patch fell off again, leaving a large area of exposed, raw flesh. In this picture you can see the flap of skin above the raw flesh where the patch had been.

July 7

Patches comes for a treat. Three days later his patch has begun to heal.

July 10

But now it looks like another smaller patch is growing beneath the large one.

Patches doesn't seem to have much appetite, which could be the heat, but compared to the bottomless pits over in Spunky's area, I'm concerned that it may be due to his illness.  I wish I knew what ails Patches and if anything can be done to cure it. It's almost like leprosy where a patch of skin keeps healing and then falling off. If anybody has any ideas about what this could be, please contact me.

I love this little squirrel. He has the sweetest disposition in the world, even now, as a big boy.

July 14

Patches is constantly changing. His patch is now smaller but bloody red.

July 17

Patches comes by to say hello.

Patches has two new lesions now:

There's a small lesion below and to the left of the big lesion (near tail):

A new lesion has appeared on his left leg: