Beloved cat living at Lowe’s for 8 years vanished. Then a touching reunion in NC
A beloved cat living at a Lowe’s store for eight years vanished — then came a heartwarming reunion in North Carolina.
The home improvement chain said workers from Virginia got into a car at 4 a.m. Monday, Oct. 6, so they could finally see Francine again.
“We were so excited the whole ride — it didn’t matter how early it was,” Lowe’s associate Wayne Schneider said in a news release. “We were going to bring her home.”
Francine the cat leapt into Schneider’s arms weeks after she disappeared from the Lowe’s in Richmond. She had been living as a stray at the store, where she became a “star” attraction. The cat also was a “local celebrity,” once called on to throw the first pitch at a Richmond Flying Squirrels minor league baseball game, community members and a corporate spokesperson told WTVR.
But in mid-September, Francine was nowhere to be found. Neighbors stepped in to help, but eventually “it became clear she hopped onto a truck” bound for a distribution center in Garysburg, North Carolina, according to Lowe’s.
At the distribution center — a roughly 85-mile drive south from Richmond — Lowe’s monitored nearly 250 cameras and brought in drones. Animal shelters also helped to set up traps and search for the lost cat.
Then on Oct. 4, Francine was spotted on a nearby camera, confirming she was safe.
“I can’t describe the feeling when we realized it was her,” Mike Sida, manager of the Richmond store, told Lowe’s in the news release. “We all just lit up.”
Then, it was time for Sida and Schneider to see the missing cat again after weeks apart. After the reunion in North Carolina, Francine was set to get checked by a veterinarian, the Richmond Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) wrote in Facebook posts.
And soon, Lowe’s said “Francine will be back to her routine: greeting customers, exploring the aisles and soaking up more affection than ever.”
“She’s more than our store cat — she’s part of our family,” Sida said.
