Venezuelan faces having to part with pet squirrel after making it to US border

Niko, a pet squirrel, on the shoulder of Yeison in their tent at a migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico (Valerie Gonzalez/AP)

A 23-year-old Venezuelan man is preparing to say goodbye to a pet squirrel he says he brought from his home country on a journey to Mexico.

Yeison is among the millions of Venezuelans in recent years who have fled because of political and economic upheaval, and has spent months in Mexico waiting to make an asylum case in the US.