He bears weight through it.
He manipulates food with both front paws.
He grips.
He climbs.
And the foot that once remained tightly folded against his chest is increasingly difficult to distinguish from the other during normal movement.
That doesn't mean we're willing to declare the job finished simply because he looks better.
A squirrel released into the wild doesn't get to climb only when conditions are easy.
Oakley will need reliable strength and coordination.
He must be able to climb quickly, descend safely, balance on irregular surfaces, manipulate natural foods, react appropriately to threats, and use the recovering limb repeatedly without showing that activity is causing the problem to return.
Those abilities matter more than a healed-looking wrist.
His story also illustrates why an injured squirrel found beneath a tree shouldn't automatically be encouraged to run away.
A wild animal's instinct to escape can temporarily hide how compromised it is.
An animal unable to use a limb, repeatedly falling, remaining unusually still, or showing significant swelling or wounds needs professional guidance.
Trying to splint or treat a wild squirrel at home can create additional injury and stress. Contacting an appropriate licensed wildlife rehabilitator or wildlife professional is the safer course.
We may never know what happened to Oakley's paw.
The missing fur and abrasions tell us the limb experienced significant trauma.
They don't tell us exactly where, when, or how.
Oakley doesn't need us to solve that mystery.
He needs the foot to work.
There is one image from intake that makes his progress especially clear.
Oakley is lying on the towel.
His body is low.
His injured paw is enormous with swelling.
The fur around the wrist is gone.
And he is holding the entire limb so tightly against his chest that it barely seems part of the rest of his body.
Now, when Oakley moves through his enclosure, keeping track of that paw is much harder.
It reaches.
Grips.
Supports his weight.
Holds food.
Pulls him upward.
The very limb he once refused to let touch a towel is becoming the limb he trusts to carry him back into the trees.
And before Oakley leaves us, that's the question his recovery still has to answer completely:
not whether the wounds disappear, or whether every strand of fur grows back—
but whether that injured paw can once again do everything a wild squirrel will ask of it.