Bicester: Tributes to DIY store cat run over in car park

Wickes runs a Facebook page for Steve, with more than 2,000 followers

Tributes have been paid to a cat that became a popular community figure after living in a hardware store.

Steve the Cat, 14, spent his time at Wickes in Bicester, Oxfordshire - but was run over in the car park last week.

A Facebook page for Steve, with 2,200 followers, posted: "Thank you for all the love you have shown him over his years as a Bicester character. RIP."

The Harrison family who owned Steve set-up a fundraiser for a memorial plaque.

Any extra money raised will go to the RSPCA.

Staff at the store gave the cat a fluorescent jacket and his own seat in the staff room

Owner Jay Harrison said: "Steve was a stray from a little town in southern Ireland, who kept following me home when I lived there.

"He was only a kitten and didn't have an owner so we took him in.

"In 2011 we moved to England, and after we got another cat Steve just stopped coming home.

"We found out that he had been spending his time at Wickes in Bicester and he basically lived there since 2015."

Sarah Harrison said people have been leaving tributes to Steve on social media

Mr Harrison added that Steve "found his home in Wickes" and the staff there gave the cat a hi-visibility jacket and his own seat in the staff room.

Sarah Harrison said people have been leaving tributes to Steve on social media, she said: "He was a cat for the community.

"We are devastated as a family but the joy and love he has given to people is a comfort."