Francine the cat, a local Richmond public figure, calls the Lowes on West Broad Street home. She made a disappearance in mid-September, but has since been found safe and returned to her role as the unofficial greeter of the hardware store.

Francine went missing by accidentally getting herself lost in a distribution truck heading to Garysberg, North Carolina. The employees and customers of Lowes were distraught and wondered where their furry friend had gone.

Lowes employee Cloi Henderson gave her perspective on Francine’s disappearance.

“I was kind of surprised, cause I was out of work for a few days, so it was a little shocking when I came back to that after not being there for a bit,” Henderson said.

The workers at Lowes were very committed to finding Francine; they even went so far as to ask corporate Lowes any way to find her. They used thermal drones, cameras, and professional trackers to hunt her down. The workers have grown close to her over the eight years she has lived there. 

“They had set up a lot of traps around the distribution center with her favorite food and she was getting her food just not going far enough into the traps,” Henderson said.

The community along with the workers at Lowes were overjoyed to hear that she was found in the Garysberg distribution center. Workers even went to pick her up early in the morning because she had become such a special part of their lives and the community as a whole, not only just for Lowes but for Richmond as a city.