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.
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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