This is the story of a black cat named Depot, who makes her home inside the Home Depot home improvement store in Bluffton, South Carolina. For readers who reside in other countries, Home Depot and Lowe’s are the two top home improvement chains in the U.S.
Bluffton is located in Beaufort County near coastal South Carolina. It’s estimated that Depot has lived in the garden shop and other areas of the home improvement store for 13 years now. Customers enjoy seeing the cat when they visit the lawn and garden department. The sweet feline brings a bit of extra happiness to the shoppers who look for her presence when they do business with the store.
Unfortunately, Depot has been tripping security alarms at night when the store is closed to the public. The idea to evict the cat from the only place she’s known for most of her life recently came up, and faced much opposition from those who loved her.
Enter Daniel Goodell, who decided to take a stand by starting a petition at Change.org that will allow Depot to remain. David resides in Margaretville, New York, but vacations in the Beaufort County area. More than 1700 signatures have been gathered since the petition went online last week.
The power of the internet and social media is strong, and working as an advantage in allowing Depot to remain in her home. In an interview with The State newspaper, Daniel summed it up perfectly….
“The gist of it is, would you want to be yanked out of your home where you’ve lived your whole life?”
Some customer’s threatened to boycott the store. There were also several officers to adopt Depot, and provide her with a stable home in which to spend her final years.
Depot, who is obviously a senior cat, has been the bright spot in the day of many who shopped at the store just to see her. Those who have fallen for this sweet black cat have offered several solutions. A doctor in Germany contacted Daniel with an offer to adopt Depot at his own expense. The Palmetto Animal League spoke with Home Depot spokesperson Catherine Woodling, offering to provide medical care and vaccinations to the aging cat.
Strangers with the only thing in common being a deep love of cats are banding together to ensure Depot isn’t evicted. So far they’ve been successful.
Woodling is concerned for Depot’s health. She wants the cat to have a safe environment. South Carolina summer’s are very hot and humid, and this winter the temperatures are breaking record lows not seen in decades. Perhaps it would be best to find Depot a stable environment. The decision has been made to allow her to stay until a better home can be found. Or until she lives out the remainder of her life.
I live in South Carolina, and while traveling as a photographer I had the pleasure of knowing a “store cat.” The cat I knew lived at a Wal-Mart in Georgia, and she would come out to greet me each time I worked the store. The cat I knew lived in the stockroom and kept the rat population under control. I imagine Depot performs a similar service at Home Depot.
It’s nice that a decision has been made to allow Depot to stay. But is it the best solution for her in the long run? Please leave a comment with your opinion on what you believe would be in Depot’s best interest.
Elisa
Refs and associated:
- Ref: thestate.com
- Associated page: Taking your cat to work
Wow, this is like one of my case stories in a class of mine. Deciding the morale implications of whether it is better for a cat to stay in the home she stayed in her whole life or placing her somewhere that will make a few other people happy. I honestly feel that she should be given all the comforts of home in the store. She may need to move to a nice home in her old age, but for now she should be OK? The alarm sensitivity could be adjusted to allow her to hunt the full length of the store. Heck, get another cat to keep her company. Cats are clean. They keep out vermin, provide love and warmth to all who they come in contact with. The store would do well to keep her.
This story reminds me of Herman, a stray dog who came to live in the garage where the police squad cars were kept in West Allis. The officers weren’t able to determine whose dog he was, and decided to keep him. They chipped in for his vet care and his food and I’m sure he had a bed someplace, maybe in the office, but basically he spent most of his time in the garage. He never got hit by a car– he looked at the lines painted on the floor, so he knew where the cars would drive and he stayed out of the way. At first the officers felt it would be wrong to have their dog wandering, since members of the public were required to follow leash laws, so they tied Herman to this weight, a large donut shaped metal disc. Herman didn’t like the confinement, so he just dragged the weight around the garage. He became so strong he was like this little “iron dog.” When they would take him out to the dog park, Herman could run like the wind. Eventually, they realized Herman wasn’t going anywhere and quit tying him up. I interviewed a retired officer who was close to Herman, and he said that sometimes he felt badly for Herman because he didn’t live in a comfortable home. He lived in a garage. But Herman, unlike most dogs, was never alone. There was always someone there, plus all the officers coming and going at the shift change, and every one had a kind word or a friendly pat or a treat for Herman.
So maybe Herman had a better life than dogs with a more conventional home. That could be true of this cat as well, but it will take some effort from those working there and maybe from customers who care about her as well. She can be provided for in her unconventional home, with risks to her being minimized. She’s great PR for the store, just as Herman was for the police department.
I wrote a song about Herman. The neighborhood kids all loved him and when Herman died he was buried with full honors as if he were a fallen officer. Many of the officers cried. I put that in my song: “Brave men were not afraid to cry, for they loved that dog as their own. They’d been glad to give him a home.” The wife of the officer I interviewed was amazed that I knew that, since her husband hadn’t told me that they cried and I wasn’t there personally. Well, no one had to tell me that the loss of a friend as special as Herman would be enough to make even grown men cry. Herman is buried near the West Allis Historical Society building. He has a nice stone. Although he died in the 1970’s, he’s still remembered around here, and even those too young to have met Herman know his story.