A Venezuelan man and his pet squirrel made it to the US border. Now he’s preparing to say goodbye

MATAMOROS – During the weeks it took Yeison and Niko to migrate from Venezuela towards the U.S., they navigated bad jungles and over a useless frame. The two are so inseparable that Yeison bought his telephone so each had sufficient bus cash to proceed their adventure.

Now as Yeison prepares to after all input the U.S., it’s most probably he’ll have to go away Niko at the back of.

That’s as a result of Niko is a squirrel.

The 23-year-old man and his pet squirrel are an odd however blunt mirrored image of the emotional alternatives migrants make over what to take — and what to go away at the back of — as they embark on the bad commute north. Yeison, who declined to give his ultimate identify as a result of he fears for his circle of relatives’s protection in Venezuela, mentioned going with out Niko used to be out of the query. But Mexico is the place they may well be compelled to phase techniques.

Yeison, who’s amongst tens of millions of Venezuelans fleeing political and financial unrest again house, secured an appointment for Saturday to provide himself at the border to search access to the U.S. and request asylum. Animals are typically no longer allowed to go the border.

“It would practically be like starting with nothing, without Niko,” Yeison mentioned.

Many who prompt on the kind of 3,000-mile (4,800-kilometer) adventure to the U.S. achieve this with simplest what they may be able to lift and their family members. For Yeison, that used to be a squirrel with a black stripe and flecks of white hair, who made the lengthy commute nesting in a pink knit cap crammed inside of a backpack.

For six months, Yeison and Niko lived in a tent at an encampment with masses of alternative migrants in Matamoros. The web site is throughout from the Texas border town of Brownsville, which is masses of miles east of Eagle Pass and no longer experiencing the similar dramatic increase in migrants that precipitated the mayor to factor an emergency declaration this previous week.

On a contemporary day, Niko crawled over Yeison’s shoulders and stayed shut whilst darting round the tent. Chances are slender Yeison can take Niko throughout the border, however volunteers at the encampment are not giving up.

Gladys Cañas, the director of a nongovernmental group, Ayudándoles A Triunfar, mentioned she has encountered different migrants who sought after to go with their pets — cats, canines and even a rabbit as soon as. But till now, by no means a squirrel.

Cañas helped attach Yeison with a veterinarian to report Niko’s vaccinations to supply to border brokers. She is hopeful they’ll permit the squirrel to go, whether or not with Yeison or with a volunteer.

“There’s a connection between him and the squirrel, so much that he preferred to bring it with him than leave the squirrel behind with family in Venezuela and face the dangers that come with the migrant journey. They gave each other courage,” she mentioned.

Yeison mentioned he discovered the squirrel after just about stepping on him at some point in Venezuela. The squirrel seemed to be newly born and Yeison took him house, the place he named him Niko and members of the family fed him yogurt. The choosy squirrel, Yeison mentioned, prefers nibbling on pine timber and is fed tomatoes and mangoes, even in occasions when meals is tricky to come via.

At first, Yeison mentioned he sought paintings in Colombia. He returned to discover a free pine splinter lodged in Niko’s eye and resolved after that to take the squirrel with him on the subsequent adventure to the U.S.

Like 1000’s of migrants, Yeison made the commute via the perilous jungle referred to as the Darien Gap, the place he mentioned he discovered the frame of a man below some blankets. He mentioned he hid Niko in a backpack after they boarded buses and crossed via checkpoint inspections in Mexico. But one time, Yieson mentioned, a bus motive force came upon the squirrel and made him pay further to stay the animal on board. Yeison mentioned he bought his telephone for $35 to duvet the price.

Once they reached the encampment in Matamoros, the pair settled right into a regimen. Yeison makes cash slicing hair via his tent and continuously falls asleep sharing the similar pillow with Niko at night time.

He used to be bracing for a separation.

“I don’t need for him to be separated from me, as a result of I do know that we’d get heartsick. I’m positive of that,” Yeison mentioned. “And if he doesn’t get sick, I hope he gets to be happy. And that he never forgets my face.”