RICHMOND, Va. — Beloved Lowe's cat Francine is back in Richmond after a week-long search.
Richmond Animal Care and Control gave the exciting update Monday morning.
Francine went missing in late September after she apparently wandered onto a delivery truck and ended up in North Carolina.
Volunteers mobilized almost immediately to search for Francine, who has called a Richmond Lowe's home for eight years. Elise Gilmore and Chas Nabi started the "Where's Francine?" Instagram account, dedicated to finding her.
"I could not keep it quiet," Nabi said. "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," Gilmore said.
The account gained more than 30,000 followers and 9 million views in a short amount of time. Local animal care groups soon reached out to help.
"Everybody was sort of working together to come up with ideas, suggestions, things we could be suggesting to Lowe's to hopefully quickly, as quickly as possible, bring Francine home," Tamsen Kingry with the Richmond SPCA explained. "The distribution center is 1.4 million square feet, so you can only imagine how massive that is."
A news release from Lowe's corporate office said that thermal drones were brought in to scan the area near the company's distribution center in Garysburg.
The news release says Francine was found on Sunday by employee Wayne Schneider after being spotted on camera Saturday night.
“I can’t describe the feeling when we realized it was her,” said Mike Sida, Lowe’s store manager. “We all just lit up.”
“She looked at us, and gave this big meow like, ‘What took you so long?’" Schneider said.
"I think really without that public outpouring of support, it may not have moved as quickly as we wanted," Gilmore said. "So I mean, at this point every moment was critical and finding her, you know. So I really just want to thank the public for their support and really helping us bring home."
Now, Francine is back to greeting customers and exploring the aisles of the West Broad Street Lowe's store.
"Animals are a uniting force. We love them deeply. We care for them greatly. And I'm just so encouraged that the community came together in the way that it did to bring Francine home," Kingry said.
CBS 6 was told that Francine was taken to the vet Monday and looks to be in good health but that she does need her rest. Anyone looking to celebrate her can go to Francine Fest at Mainline Brewery on Wednesday from 6 to 10 p.m.
The Richmond SPCA has also waived adoption fees for cats and kittens to celebrate Francine's return.
Thanks to all who SHARED on social media to spread the word!
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