Alstian
When I clean the squirrels I mark one of the hind legs with a cut if it is an old squirrel. When preparing for cooking I cut the squirrel into 5 pieces. 2 front legs, the ribs and back bone (The back bone cut just below the last ribs) the tenderloin and hind legs with the tenderloin split down the middle. I score the membrane on the outside of all the pieces with a paring knife.
If it is an old squirrel I boil it till it is tender.
I beat an egg in a dipping bowl and add butter milk to it.
I keep a 1 gallon zip lock of seasoned flour in the door of the freezer.
(Seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, Cavender's Greek Seasoning, Tony Chachery's Creole Seasoning. Be sure to wait till last to add the salt because the greek seasoning and the creole seasoning both have salt in them. Taste the flour mix and continue to add black pepper and salt till it is just slightly hot and salty after a minute on the tip of the tongue. It is easy to get the mix too salty so be careful. The good thing is that you can adjust the remaining mixture in the bag after cooking the first batch of squirrel)
I put about 1/4" of olive oil in a cast iron skillet and set the burner to high.
Once the oil is hot place the pieces of squirrel in it. Let it cook on high just long enough to crisp up the flour on the bottom side. Turn the burner to low and place a lid on the skillet. The lid keeps the steam in the skillet and helps with making the squirrel tender. Keep checking the squirrel for tenderness with a fork. If the pieces are from a very old squirrel you might have to add just a bit of water to the skillet to allow it to remain moist during the longer cooking process. Once the squirrel is tender and cooked remove the lid and set the burner to high. When the bottom side is once again crispy turn the pieces over and let the second side crisp up and you are done. Very tasty.

A bonus to keeping the flour mixture in the freezer is that it works great for other meats as well as making gravy.

Thanks
Mr-Pirk

Why would we eat them if they were not safe to eat?

I will take wild game meat over store bought meat any day of the week. Its range free with no additives or lord knows what else an just plain tastes great! I have killed one fox squirrel that was eat up with the mange, never knew it as he was up in a tall hickory tree eating nuts. Needless to say he didn't come home with me, figured I did him a favor...
Seriously, squirrel is a great meat, fun to hunt an not hard to prepare. I will hunt squirrel long after I'm too old to drag an ole deer from the woods!!

Tree rats, what to say?
They are pretty darn good eating, though I've only tried them fried. So extra thanks for the recipes, going to try them. A good fellow of mine love to cook them wrapped in a slice of a beacon.