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Cat living in Home Depot for 13 years gets to stay

Cat living in Home Depot for 13 years gets to stay

Thanks to the overwhelming support of strangers, Home Depot is still home for Depot.

The stray cat has been living in the home and garden centre of a Bluffton, South Carolina, Home Depot for the past 13 years.

When news broke that the friendly black cat, appropriately named Depot, was about to be evicted from her home, the story went national.

Management's reason for the threatened eviction: the aging feline had been triggering security alarms at night.

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"Being an animal lover, I'd get rid of management before I'd get rid of the cat," customer Nancy Bogenrief told WTOC.

A petition was launched, begging the home-improvement chain to let Depot, the store's most beloved greeter, stay.

"I've always liked having the cat in the store when I visit," Daniel Goodell, who started the petition, told the Charlotte Observer. "It was always friendly. The gist of it is, would you want to be yanked out of your home where you've lived your whole life?"

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The overwhelming response in support of the cat — the petition received more than 1,800 signatures, offers came in to adopt Depot, and some local residents threatened to boycott the store — convinced the chain to let the cat stay indefinitely.

"Unless someone can provide her a better home, she can stay," Catherine Woodling, the spokesperson, told the Charlotte Observer, adding that the retailer plans to find Depot a "healthier, safer environment" as she gets older.

Woodling also said the Palmetto Animal League offered to give Depot a health exam and provide it with vaccines if necessary.