Animal youngsters again will be the focus of the annual Baby Animal Shower at the Suisun Marsh Natural History Association and Wildlife Center next month.

Those attending the June 6 event will get a chance to meet the wildlife center’s educational animals, birds and mammals that have healed from injuries so severe they are unable to be introduced back into the wild.

Instead, Kaiu the coyote, Pogo the opossum and several other animals and birds have found permanent homes at the center, where they have new jobs: helping association members teach the public about the creatures that share California with people.

Visitors also will get to see the baby animals that have been brought to the center for rehabilitation.

Each spring and summer, the center gets hundreds of calls from those who have found injured animals and birds, and some of the babies being rehabilitated will be there June 6.

Visitors can bring items that will help the Suisun Marsh association care for the babies and other birds and animals who are on the way to recovery and release.

Among the foods the babies need are Innova dog food, Purina puppy kibble, apples and grapes, Executive Director Monique Liguori said.

The center also can use Dawn dish soap, laundry soap, bleach, heating pads and flannel fabric, such as baby blankets and pillow cases, as well as garden hoses, native trees and bushes for planting and medium-sized, well-opened pine cones to use for making bird feeders.

Visitors also may provide financial support for baby ducks, jackrabbits, raccoons, squirrels, owls or songbirds by contributing the amount it takes to care for a creature for a month, Liguori said.

The wildlife center will have shows throughout the baby shower, and special activities for children are planned. Refreshments will be served.

Last year, the center had the unusual experience of caring for an orphaned baby bobcat.

“We do not receive many bobcats for rehabilitation due to their elusive nature,” Liguori said.

The cub’s condition was poor. “He clearly had been without his mother for some time, weighing only 2.5 pounds on intake. At approximately six weeks old, he was very underweight and malnourished,” she said.

The wildlife center managed to get the cub stabilized, then contacted the Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center in Morgan Hill.

“They specialize in raising orphaned bobcats, and after a few months of great food and care, the little bobcat they called ‘Fairfield’ was nearly 20 pounds, and we were able to release him back to the wild,” Liguori said.

Fairfield was among those that gave the wildlife center one of its highest release rates for a year, 62 percent. The success has been credited to development of improved diets and advances in rehabilitation techniques.

Other animals released last year were Tank, a western pond turtle that had been under the Center’s care since 2011, and three featherless acorn woodpeckers found on the ground in Rockville Park.

Kris Reiger is the center’s wildlife care director, and Liguori praised her for what she brings to the center’s programs.

“Kris personally works with all the birds and animals, and trains the volunteers who are allowed to take part,” Liguori said. “She has trained many of our birds, and cares for them all, including maintaining their beaks and claws and installing and fitting the jesses and bracelets that allow them to be handled.”

She said those time-consuming duties are completed on top of Reiger’s regular tasks. “As the education program and the number of birds have grown, Kris has risen to the occasion,” she said.

“This was my first full year as wildlife care director,” Reiger said. “I have to say it was challenging and wonderful at the same time.”

She said the center constantly faces the challenge of doing much with limited funds, “but we make up for it with all the wonderful people who make what we do possible.”

Some volunteers work with the animals directly at the center, and others have been trained to care for the birds and animals at home. Volunteers also help with other projects the center undertakes.

In the past year, the center stripped off its old roof and replaced felt and roofing materials with the help of Lt. Col. Patrick Carley and members of the United States Air Force 60th CEF/CEM from Travis Air Force Base, said Jerry Emanuelson, the association’s board president.

Directed by Mike Southward, they completed the job in two days, he said.

The project also got help from Solano Concrete, which donated a dumping bin during the construction project.

Other donations last year were monetary, including the second half of a $36,000 grant from the Solano County Park and Recreation Commission, made from Fish and Wildlife fine funds the association used to complete its environmental education wing.

Matching grants for volunteers or donations came from ExxonMobil Foundation, Shell, WalMart and Chevron Humankind, Liguori said.

Other contributors are Xpu Foundation and Dow Chemical, Allied Ink, BrokerWorld and the children of the Dan O. Root Elementary School of Suisun and Nelda Mundy Elementary School of Fairfield.

One donor, Kealani Ostrout, gave up receiving birthday presents to help the animals at the wildlife center, Liguori said.

The Suisun Marsh Natural History Association and Wildlife Center is a nonprofit organization. Donations may be made via PayPal through the organization’s website, www.suisunwildlife.org, or by mail to Suisun Marsh Natural History Association, 1171 Kellogg St., Suisun, Calif., 94585.

Those reporting injured or orphaned wildlife, or with questions, may call the wildlife center, 707-429-4295.

The Baby Animal Shower will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 6 at the wildlife center, 1171 Kellogg St., Suisun.