I am absolutely a cat person. In fact, one of my two cats was very much a stray that I toiled and fought against until she trusted me enough to come with me. There is just something about being in the presence of a live animal that can take care of themselves in so many ways that’s just so wonderful. Unfortunately, a community in Richmond, Virginia, that frequents a local Lowe’s lost their store cat, Francine. Francine is very much a pillar of the Lowe’s store, where she stands guard at the plants, sleeps on top of the mulch, and gets along with everyone.
Francine the cat is a white cat with orange and brown spots over her ears and tail, who is a permanent employee of the RVA Lowe’s in Richmond, Virginia. While not an official employee, she is definitely official to everyone who works and visits the store. However, late last month, Francine walked onto a distribution truck headed to North Carolina, where she hadn’t been seen in several weeks. Francine is such a pillar of her community that someone decided to make a TikTok page dedicated to locating her.
Fortunately, someone in the Lowe’s corporate offices caught wind of the petition to bring Francine home, and work is being done to do just that. In fact, according to an update made yesterday, Lowe’s said that, “we don’t have plans to stop (looking for her) anytime (soon).”
However, considering Francine is a cat and in a new place, locating her proved to be very difficult. She was sighted just yesterday, though, exactly where Francine fans had hoped she would be. The latest update from the TikTok account @whereisfrancine says that an employee from the Richmond, Virginia, store is headed over to North Carolina in hopes of being able to find her. Commentators across every video on the page hope Francine is found safely, with one of the top comments saying, “I’m so stressed for Francine this is terrible.”
With everyone on the same page about finding Francine, I have no doubt she’ll be located soon enough. Considering the work Lowe’s is putting in to find her (various drop traps with food placed inside in randomized locations within the facility, live camera feeds, etc.), I’m sure she will be found safely soon enough.
If she is not found by Wednesday, October 8, a well-known animal tracker is said to arrive at the North Carolina distribution facility in hopes of locating her. At that point, I’m positive we’ll be seeing stories of Francine’s safe return to her local Lowe’s store.
