Oscar is King of the Castle

Oscar has fawn-coloured fur on his belly and muzzle. He's similar to a black squirrel but with this colouration, he's what's called a honey bear.

ML and I visited baby squirrel Oscar this morning and spent a delightful hour with him and his current care-givers.

Being hand-raised from the get-go, he is OK with being handled. However, I understand that once released, he'll climb that tree to squirreldom and never look back. This is a good thing. A wild animal needs to say wild.

He's eating fruits and vegetables now, along with formula, and yesterday, a milestone! He cracked a sunflower seed!

Oscar can now balance on his hind-legs and grip food in his paws.

Oscar is eight weeks old but still lagging a bit. He is living in sanctuary, more like heaven, with two young females squirrels who make much of him and cosset him, play with him and try to attract his attention with their special bird-chirp call.

He's much smaller than what they are, given his premature birth, but he is holding his own and the three eat and sleep together and are appreciative of one another. He is with two wild squirrels who were found without their mothers, one in a parking lot, so needed human intervention. Thus, he is learning squirrel ways from the experts.

He was quire comfortable in our presence, more so than his cage mates.