By Jordan Nailon

The Chronicle

ROCHESTER — This time of year, things are in full swing at For Heaven’s Sake Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation. The natural action of the birds and the bees results in a windfall of fledgling wildlife in the springtime.

While most of them go about their feral business all on their own, some unlucky critters inevitably wind up injured, sick or simply separated from their mothers, sisters and brothers.

Out of that unlucky group of desperate and disparate wildlife the luckiest few wind up in the care of Claudia and Dave Supensky at their refuge in Rochester.

While the Supenskys have animals of one sort or another under their care and on the mend year round, the run between February and September has a tendency to be the busiest. On Friday in the infirmary at For Heaven’s Sake there were baby birds in a crocheted basket, a lazy fawn lounging beneath a wooden stool, a pair of bottle-feeding baby river otters and a ferocious, if tiny, bobcat kitten. Outside, ducks and turkeys wandered around the yard on their own accord.

“We are extremely busy. We hit the floor running and go all day,” said Claudia Supensky. “It’s the natural season so there are babies to feed all day long, cleaning to do all day long and medical issues with things coming in injured.”

Claudia noted that batches of orphaned baby squirrels typically bookend the busy months with the first little nut hoarders showing up in February and the last group arriving sometime in early fall. In the spring, the squirrels are often joined by fawns, baby beavers, otters and even tiny eaglets. In the summer, opossum and rabbits continue to fill out the ranks before conceding to the squirrels again.

All told, For Heaven’s Sake currently has about 25 deer fawns on the premises, including four in the Supenskys’ residence. There was also an elk calf, and there was talk of adding another young and lonely elk from the Maple Valley area later on Friday afternoon pending logistical maneuvering and Interstate 5 traffic.

The deer and elk typically stay the longest with the Supenskys because it takes awhile to get them up to full speed, and then there are other risk factors to consider. Fully recovered ungulates are usually released after about nine months, usually in February or March, so that there are no hunting seasons to worry about and there’s plenty of new foliage to munch on as they transition back to the wild.

Baby otters also take about nine months of care before they are ready to be released into the wild. Unlike deer and elk, though, they must be raised with another animal of their ilk in order to thrive, or simply survive.

“They need a family. They need each other,” noted Claudia.

Bobcats are less common than some of the other animals that come through For Heaven’s Sake, and their care needs can vary greatly from one animal to the next. Like otters, they also need a companion in order to grow up strong and healthy. Claudia says that bobcats usually spend about four or five months under the care of For Heaven’s Sake before being released into the wild, but that timeframe is not set in stone.

“It just depends on the animal how long we keep it because it depends on their ability to hunt,” explained Claudia.

Baby beavers can take the longest to completely rehabilitate. The process usually takes between two and three years and can be incredibly labor intensive. Not only do the beavers require a sizeable pool for swimming in, they are also strict vegetarians that require copious amounts of leafy wood products to keep their bellies full.

Claudia says that For Heaven’s Sake is always looking for donations of branches from willow, aspen and poplar trees in order to keep the beavers happy and healthy. She noted that anyone with yard debris from those types of trees is welcome to drop it off at their rescue, or, if she can find volunteers to do the work she’d even send them out to a property to do the trimming and hauling away on behalf of the beavers.

“We’re always really careful not to kill the trees. We want them to grow for next time,” explained Claudia.

Currently, For Heaven’s Sake has about 20 baby owls on site, but Claudia says that the biggest time crunch in the spring comes from the collection of baby song birds that need to be syringe fed every 30 minutes.

When it comes to releasing their rehabilitated animals back into the wild there is not a set time or place. Sometimes Dave and Claudia will make an effort to get the animal back to where it came from, but not always.

“If their cat brought it to them, I’m probably not going to take it back there,” said Dave, who estimated that there were about 75 rescue animals on the property Friday. “We take them wherever is best for the animal. Wherever we think they can survive.”

Since they first incorporated their rescue operation in 2010 the biggest struggle has been keeping up with the workload and the supplies required to adequately care for all of the down on their luck animals that come through For Heaven’s Sake.

Claudia says that financial donations are always useful and appreciated but noted that they are also glad to accept paper towels, tissues, toilet paper and bleach products that are used for bedding and cleanup in the stalls and cages.

Volunteers help to care for the animals and clean their living spaces. Cutting some beaver fodder trees is also high on the list of needs for the Supenskys’ rescue operation.

“We need people who are willing to work and who are dependable, because it’s not easy to volunteer to care for the animals,” said Dave.

Due to space limitations, For Heaven’s Sake Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation is currently accepting only deer, elk, otters, beavers, porcupine, owls, ravens and bobcats. Additional information can be found online at http://www.fhswildliferehab.org/ or by calling 360-273-0550.