I did some work for a lady here who rehabs birds of prey, eagles, owls, hawks and such. She gets no state funding from MI, but does accept donations to cover the costs of the rats and mice required to feed the critters. She also visits local grade schools with animals that have become acclaimed the people and cannot be released back into the wild. seeing a hawk/eagle soaring is one thing, up close and personal they are truly impressive.
I hate squirrels, but have raised two by hand. The dang things get into my garage and constantly attempt to get into my attic. I live in the city and they will not let me pop them with a shotgun. I have several pecan trees, so they like me.
Last Thursday another baby was on the ground as I took my garbage cans to the street to be picked up later. I reached down and picked it up, it was a little older than my previous pets had been, but too young to make it on his own. His legs were not sure footed for tree climbing, my cats would have him soon.
I took him to the house, mixed a little milk and egg up and eye dropped him a few ounces of it. He perked up right fast. But I knew I didn’t care to raise another one. I would not keep this one. I had some yard work to do, I would let the booger hang with me for now, but this one was NOT staying.
I saw an older semi neighborhood kid (16ish complete with skateboard from some project homes about 5 blocks away) slumbering around the block and called him over. He was interested of course, but not able to take pets. I doubt he was mature enough anyhoo. As we were talking by the roadside, an Mexican family was hauling some riding lawnmower behind his pickup and slowed down to look at the baby squirrel on my shoulder. I walked up the little man with his little son (age 8ish) in the cab, and said “Do you want a little pet”? He smiled and I put my new pet on his shoulder and said “feed him some milk and egg” for a day or so and peanut butter in a few days. He smiled and did a little bow, his son took a hold of his new pet and they drove off.
So somewhere a few blocks from my house a new squirrel has an actual name and a little boy will raise it for a few months and slowly it will become more and more wild and eventually it will not return from it’s tree adventures and become wild again. One of the easiest wild pets to raise, but hard to keep from going back feral unless you keep it completely inside.
With the exception of the Norwegian Brown Rat, these critters are the most destructive. They love to eat the insulation off wires (frequently to their own detriment) causing huge sums of damage to homes and the infrastructure. They are fuzzy tailed rats pure and simple - nothing cute about them. Idiots feed them.