Lowe’s Cat Francine Returns Home After Week-Long Adventure Across

After a week of worry and a massive community search effort, Francine, the beloved cat who has lived at a Richmond Lowe’s store for eight years, is finally back home.

Community Rallies to Find Francine

Francine disappeared in late September after apparently climbing onto a delivery truck and ending up in North Carolina. Once her absence was noticed, volunteers and fans quickly organized a search. Richmond residents Elise Gilmore and Chas Nabi even launched the Instagram page “Where’s Francine?” to spread the word.

“I could not keep it quiet,” said Nabi. “The whole city needs to know about that.”
“We thought, the more eyes that we got on it, the more likely it was that she would be found,” added Gilmore.

Instagram @wheresfrancine

The account quickly gained more than 30,000 followers and 9 million views, drawing in animal rescue groups and supporters across the region.

A High-Tech Search

According to Lowe’s corporate office, the company used thermal drones to search the massive 1.4 million-square-foot distribution center in Garysburg, North Carolina. Richmond SPCA’s Tamsen Kingry said, “Everybody was sort of working together to come up with ideas, suggestions, things we could be suggesting to Lowe’s to hopefully, as quickly as possible, bring Francine home.”

Francine was spotted on camera Saturday night and found Sunday by employee Wayne Schneider.

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A post shared by @wheresfrancine

“She looked at us, and gave this big meow like, ‘What took you so long?’” Schneider said.

Francine’s Happy Homecoming

“I can’t describe the feeling when we realized it was her,” said Lowe’s store manager Mike Sida. “We all just lit up.”

Francine has returned to greeting customers at the West Broad Street Lowe’s and is reportedly in good health after a vet visit. “Animals are a uniting force,” Kingry said. “I’m just so encouraged that the community came together in the way that it did to bring Francine home.”

To celebrate, Mainline Brewery hosted a Francine Fest on Wednesday and the Richmond SPCA waived cat and kitten adoption fees in her honor.