Published Dec 18, 2025
@wheresfrancine / Instagram.com
A popular mascot cat from a Lowe’s home-improvement store in the Richmond, Virginia area has returned home after an accidental escapade in a truck that took the sweet cat to North Carolina on a truck and prompted weeks of searching from her fan base.
The adorable cat named Francine – a white cat with calico markings on her head and tail areas, and estimated to be 12 or 13 years old – had slipped onto a truck at her home Lowe’s and disappeared, to the alarm and heartbreak of her many fans in the Richmond community.
Chas Nabi, a Lowe’s customer who loves Francine, takes his dog to the cat’s Lowe’s on Broad Street for a walk when it’s raining. In September, he was chatting with an employee while checking out and asked about Francine’s whereabouts. His dog, Bowie, loves Francine, but she doesn’t return the affection. Her take-no-prisoners ways are part of her charm, Chas tells WRAL News in a video where he is wearing a T-shirt with an image of Francine that says “Francine Working Class Hero.”
The employee confessed that Francine – who had lived at this Lowe’s for about eight years – had gone missing, but she was told to keep quiet about it, Chas said. Alarmed, Chas and Elise Gilmore created the Instagram page @wheresfrancine, and Francine’s story quickly spread. The page, which now has 40.4K followers, is full of cute pictures of Francine in her Lowe’s home, where she often sits on boxes. Francine’s post got national attention, and even drew attention from cat lovers around the world. Francine fans pledged a $2K award for Francine’s return.
@wheresfrancine / Instagram.com
Clearly, Francine is a famous and beloved cat. Why?
“Francine’s hard to explain,” Elise told WRAL. “When you hear about Francine, you … say, OK, she’s just a little kitty living in the Lowe’s. But she’s much more than that. I’ve said in the past, she’s the glue that holds Richmond together. She’s an enigma. She can’t be defined by just words. You really have to experience her to fully understand her. She’s loved by thousands and thousands of Richmonders.”
Francine has merchandise like T-shirts modeled after her, and she even won eight votes in the 2024 Richmond mayoral election, Elise said.
As the story of Francine’s disappearance went viral, tips from anonymous insiders started coming. Someone reported that Francine was last seen on September 18, and that she accidentally slipped onto a truck heading for the Lowe’s distribution center in Garysburg, N.C.
Francine’s fans did their best to organize a search for Francine, and Elise made calls to many nearby businesses in Garysburg to ask whether anyone had seen the cat. Several people in Richmond wanted to go to Garysburg to search for Francine, but said that Lowe’s corporate people would not allow it.
The company did send this statement to WRAL:
“Our teams are doing all they can to find Francine and bring her home safely, including reviewing camera footage, searching with drones, communicating with others both inside and outside our facilities, and searching the grounds around the clock,” the email said.
The company limits who is allowed on the grounds for safety reasons, with big trucks and equipment moving around the clock, Lowe’s said.
But, all’s well that ends well. On October 4, Francine’s face was spotted on a surveillance camera near the Lowe’s distribution center. Volunteers set out snacks and traps to lure the wayward cat, and once Francine was caught, Lowe’s team members put her in a carrier and returned her to her Richmond home.
That is just where she belongs, and where Francine is so loved as a community mascot, Chas told WRAL.
@wheresfrancine / Instagram.com
“She serves as an outlet for the Richmond community to put a lot of positive energy and pride that we have in our city,” he said.
May Francine have many more years of happiness and adoration at her Richmond home!
Remarkable Rescues
We love stories about lost cats reuniting with their families, and particularly remarkable stories – about cats who made it home over very long distances, after a very long time, or from deadly circumstances – make the headlines often.
Take Mr. Mojo, a South Carolina cat who really lived up to his name. In 2013, Mr. Mojo left his family home one night and didn’t come back. The heartbroken family searched far and wide, but they reached the painful conclusion that Mr. Mojo must be lost forever and probably deceased.
Then, about a decade later, Erin – the cat’s bereaved human – got a shocking call from the Charleston Animal Society. Animal control officers had picked up a black and white tuxedo cat from about two miles from Erin’s home. A microchip scan proved the amazing truth: It was Mr. Mojo, all these years later, alive! It remains a mystery how this cat survived for some 10 years and what he was doing all that time. It must be his vigorous “mojo.”
Then, in 2024, another grieving cat parent who thought her beloved feline was gone for good was joyfully reunited with her cat, Marley – a full two and a half years after the orange tabby went missing. Someone found Marley as a presumed stray in the Colorado Springs area and brought the cat into the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region. A staff member scanned Marley and discovered a microchip. Marley’s mom, who thought her cat had died outside somewhere, was overjoyed by the call informing her that Marley was alive and well and ready to come home.
As for a cat who survived a deadly ordeal, we wrote about a fluffy gray cat named Loki last year. Loki’s family had moved to a region with harsh winters, and one day, Loki managed to sneak outside, where the temperature was dipping into the negatives overnight. The distraught family combed the area outside their house in search of their cat, but he was lost in the frigid weather.
Yet somehow, Loki pulled through, and he came home 10 days later – but, he had lost almost half of his body weight! We don’t know how Loki survived that awful week and a half, but this miraculous homecoming warms our hearts.
We wish every missing cat such happy endings.
