Jack Update

It's been a while since I've given a squirrel update.  Jack will be a year old in a month!  I can't believe it.  Time flies!  He's doing really well.  It's hard to get pictures of him because he rarely stops moving.  He does take short rest breaks when he gets hot though, then we're able to snap cute pictures like the one below.

I love how he splays himself out flat.  He is so cute!

 He's discovered snow peas and loves them!

When he stops for a break I actually get a chance to pet him hehe.  Normally he just wants to wrestle.  Also yes I actually do have to wear a thick jacket when I play with him because his claws hurt when he climbs all over me.  It is HOT wearing that thing in the summer!

Here is a short video of him enjoying a short ear scratch before he goes back to roughhousing with me.

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Isn't he adorable????

P.S.  I have a story I forgot to share with you guys.  Jack was out playing on the porch (supervised) when he stumbled upon a red wasp... it stung him on the paw and he went flipping across the porch like a Mexican jumping bean chattering and growling (squirrely expletives).  We were about eight feet away when it happened. We kept our distance because he gets aggressive when hurt and just talked soothingly to him. He finally climbed on top of the dove's cage and was inspecting his foot. At first he couldn't sit up because he wouldn't put weight on his paw.  He kept falling over because he couldn't balance sitting up on his haunches with one foot in the air.  Finally he just stretched out on his belly and lay really still.

We finished cleaning his cage and water bowl, then put his evening snacks in and thank goodness he put himself in his cage when we walked away. He was jumping, climbing and sitting up to eat, but he was definitely still in pain an hour later. When I tried to look in his wire windows he jumped right at my face aggressively. His paw was pretty swollen.

I of course was panicking because I didn't know if he could have an allergic reaction that would kill him.  I contacted some squirrel knowledgeable people and they told me to give him Benadryl and infant ibuprofen and how much to dose him.  The only way to get medicine in him was to put it on a pecan and hope he'd eat it.  He did!  Then he licked it all off of his paws, which was good since it meant he got more of it in him.

Hubby was actually able to pick him up and put him in a bowl to weigh him on our kitchen scale after it got dark outside and he weighed 1.9 pounds and that's when he was eight months old!  Luckily by the next day he was totally back to normal besides a bit of swelling.  He recovered completely from the ordeal.  I now carefully check the porch for wasps before I let him out!