I have known people that kept them as pets and as long as you raise, care and train for them properly they are good pets. I do not reccomend it as they are a wild animal. I do a lot of rescues w/ baby squireels (CONSTANTLY in spring & summer) I now have 3 that are being reeased in a week or 2. You see at the vets office I work in we get quite a few people that find the babies or injured ones on the ground & bring them in to us but my boyfriend is a proffesional arborvist (tree surgon) so he gets a ton from work & I am stuck w/ 1/2 of them my other friend who's boyfriend also works with mine keeps the other 1/2 of the squirells. We only keep them long enough to raise them or nurse them back to health then we release them and we handle them only when neede as this way they will do better back in the wild.