Baldy the squirrel is no longer bald. His botflies having decamped, his fur is coming back in, a short, pale saddle of stubble across back and sides. Eventually, I’ll only be able to tell him by the cowlick, and then not even that.

But of course, the backyard being what it is, nobody escapes unscathed for long. One of his hind toes is swollen and infected. As an identifier, not all that useful, since they rarely hold still long enough to count toes, but still unpleasant for Baldy. I sometimes wish I could dose the suet with antibiotics for these poor little guys, but of course, the environmental havoc involved would far outweigh the benefit to Baldy’s toe. Oh, well, that’s nature for you, I guess…

Still, it’d good to see that as we inch into the coolnes of fall, Baldy won’t have to face it denuded.

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