Pasadena wildlife center seeking donations to relocate after eviction notice

Cleo Watts spends her mornings mixing formulas and scrambling eggs to feed dozens of guests housed in her two-bedroom apartment in Pasadena.

One bedroom is hers. The other, she uses to run Cleo’s Critter Care, a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation non-profit to provide critical care to sick or injured animals in the greater Los Angeles Area.

Watts, 46, has lived in the Pasadena home for 23 years and has run Cleo’s Critter Care out of the space for more than a decade.

But now, the licensed rehabber is looking for a new space after notice from her landlord that she’d need to move out by October. The property on South Altadena Dr. faces demolition to build apartments, Watts said.

City officials confirmed that an initial application was made to built multi-family units on the site.

“I don’t want to shut our doors because when we do, animals suffer. But if I don’t have a place where I can put them, then it’s not fair if I can’t provide proper care,” she said.

But with limited funds and no plans on where to go, she’s asking for the community’s support.

“Is it possible that because we are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that we can get someone to donate a small piece of their land to us and use it as a tax write-off? If we’re renters, we’ll potentially have to go through this again and this is a nightmare,” Watts said.

Cleo’s Critter Care began 12 years ago as a small kitten rescue operation run by Watts out of her Pasadena home. But her operation expanded during the pandemic when she took on calls to care for orphaned, sick and injured wildlife.

Over the past two decades, the center has treated around 1,000 animals, Watts said. She’s currently rehabilitating 35 animals in incubators and beds, ranging from baby raccoons to skunks. She’ll care for them over an eight-month period before releasing them into the wild.

Although the center has a small team of volunteers working in shifts, Watts said that for her, Cleo’s Critter Care is a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week operation. She often receives calls in the middle of the night to rescue animals that were hit by cars.

And during the Eaton fire, Watts and her team of volunteers worked around the clock to rescue animals left stranded in evacuation zones.

Evelyn Stewart, 72, is the lead volunteer at Cleo’s Critter Care. She remains hopeful about the upcoming relocation.

“To save wildlife is a labor of love and to do it here, in the community, is amazing,” Stewart said. “I’m hoping someone will help us to stay in this community.”

The nonprofit has a GoFundMe page and is actively seeking land donations in the San Gabriel Valley area.