Francis

**Francis** is a housecat and the main protagonist of *Felidae* in both the books and movies.

## Appearance

Francis is a mostly black furred cat, with white socks. The tip of his tail is also white. He has a pink nose, green eyes, and appears to be a Tuxedo Cat.

## Personality

Francis is cool headed and very perceptive. A bit stereotypical, he is a curious cat as well as being very intelligent. There is some humor to his character.

## Biography

### Before *Felidae*

According to a Flashback in Schandtat, Francis was born to a pair of unnamed stray cats. His mother had a hard time feeding herself and in turn, her litter, which resulted in her stealing from humans. His father wasn't around, as is typical for male cats regarding their offspring. His mother eventually pays for straying so close to humans and nearly loses her entire litter. She also loses her own life.

Francis is the only kitten to survive. Sometime afterwards, he is found and adopted by Gustav Löbel and lives out the rest of his days as a domestic cat.

### The Movie

    Francis lives with a man named Gustav Löbel, an architect and erotic novelist who moves around a lot. The latest place they move too is surrounded in violence and mystery, as Francis discovers when he and Bluebeard discovered the body of a murdered cat named Sascha. Both cats discuss the death, with Bluebeard guessing it was a cruel man who killed him. Francis disagrees, saying that the throat was shredded and likely the work of another cat.

    Later that night, Francis has a nightmare about a scientist tricking him into imprisonment by offering him a fancy collar. He awakens to Bluebeard coming into the house. The other cat informs him that there's been another killing, after he asks. Deep Purple was the latest victim, a tomcat. The two cats go to see the corpse, meeting Kong and the two Hermanns on the way.

    When they reach the body, Francis notices that Purple and Sascha's deaths both have something in common-- they were both sexually excited when they were murdered. Bluebeard stubbornly maintains that only a human could be so cruel, but Francis tells him not to obtuse and theorizes someone doesn't want competition from other males or just hates sex in general.

Later, back at home, he hears the sounds of cats shrieking in pain and finds the Cult of Claudandus. There he sees several strays, including Bluebeard, Kong, Hermann and Hermann. He spies on them, until they notice him, then he is forced to run for his life. Francis runs a fair distance from home, losing them, and finding a temporary haven in the house of a blind cat called Felicity. They talk a bit, Felicity telling Francis she's been blind from birth, but he believes that a human might've ruined her sight at a young age. They change the subject and Francis is excited to learn that Felicity, in hearing the death cries of other cats, is the first witness to some of the murders.

    They begin to discuss it, but just as Felicity begins speaking of Claudandus, Bluebeard finds them both and Francis leaves with Bluebeard to confront him about the Cult of Cluadandus, while promising Felicity that he will return once he's settled things with Bluebeard.

Back at Francis' home, he and Bluebeard talk in the kitchen while eating fish that Gustav had cut for them. Bluebeard insists that the Cult of Cluadandus isn't anything serious; just something to kill time. Francis is skeptical of his assertion but does not press Bluebeard further.

    They go to the house of an old cat named Pascal. He greets them, offers them food, and takes Francis to his computer while Bluebeard goes to eat. The two talk about the murders, noticing all the dead cats were European Shorthairs. Francis sees this as an act of racism, but then Pascal enters the sixth, newest murder: Felicity. Alarmed and in disbelief, Francis goes back to check on her, only to find she had been murdered, her head ripped clean off. He then concludes that she died because she knew too much and that the killer was watching his every move.
Later he has another

    nightmare, surrounded by dead cats. A man rises up from the pile and begins puppeteering the corpses around, repeating Pascal's words of "no other creation is as worthy as the felidae" and telling Francis the very word "felidae" is his next clue. Francis awakens and begins to chase mice. In the chase, he accidentally starts up a VCR which shows animal experiments on cats. They test a substance that is supposed to mend skin back together, but it kills every test subject they have except an orange stray that wanders in off the streets. Making him their mascot, they finally find success when the serum is tested on him. They name the cat "Claudandus" and later dissect him when they suspect he is a mutant and that allowed him to survive while the others died. As funding is cut further and further the lead scientist goes madder and madder, deciding to breed his mutant cat and produce a "super race" of cats.
Drunk and believing the cat has spoken to him, he releases Claudandus and the two battle.

     The victor is uncertain as the tape ends and Kong appears, making good on his promise of meeting Francis "in the near-distant future". Admitting that *he* is the killer (of which Francis is skeptical) Kong attacks Francis while Hermann and Hermann look on. When Francis runs, they chase, but Francis manages to escape one again. Whilst running, he stumbles upon a sixth murder victim, a pregnant female who's had her throat torn and her belly ripped open, her unborn kittens spilled into the grass.

    Kong eventually catches up to him, when he too stumbles upon the body. He recognizes the body as one of his mates, a queen named Solitare, and he grieves angrily over her, swearing death to the one who murdered her.
Losing interest in Francis, Kong tries to find his mate's murderer. An old, bedraggled grey cat appears from the bushes and then flees. The four cats, decide to go after him. Kong and the two Hermanns decide to run ahead, convinced that the grey cat couldn't have gotten far as the highway is only four blocks away. Francis however notices that the grey cat had hidden under an overturned cart. Francis follows him into an underground pipe and Bluebeard appears shortly afterwards, having also seen Solitare and heard Kong's wailing. The two make their way into the Catacombs, where they find Isaiah, who tells them the tale of the Prophet, Claudandus.

    He tells Francis that the Lord made him the "Guardian of the Dead", tasking him with gathering the dead. He reveals to Francis that many of the dead were mutilated, sexually excited, or even pregnant.

    Bluebeard and Francis discuss it further, but Bluebeard can think of nothing but food, so Francis goes home to sleep and dream some more. In his dreams, he sees several cats, and dreams of the Prophet. They encourage him to go with him, to their land, and when he asks what will he find in that land, they respond "everything that we have lost."

    He is pulled from his dream by a female cat in heat called Nhozemphtekh. She seduces him, they mate, and then Francis asks who she is and where she comes from. She isn't interested in these questions, however, and just wants to get back to mating.

Later, Bluebeard comes to tell Francis of Joker's activities. He wants to bring Pascal into it too. Bluebeard tells Francis that the breed of female that he mated with are different; a designer breed that is more wild and dangerous than ordinary domestic cats. He again goes to Pascal and both of them agree that the killer is sending a message. Pascal comes to the conclusion that Joker is the most likely culprit, but Bluebeard informs them he's disappeared. Pascal says he's run away; Francis however suspects that he's dead, likely killed by the real culprit.

    They gather together cats from all over the neighborhood, telling them that the actual number of murders is well over 400 instead of a mere 7. Francis tells them that Joker is involved somehow and learns from his granddaughter that Claudandus is alive. Pascal disagrees, however, claiming that no cat could've survived such terrible wounds and convinces everyone but Francis that he is dead.

Francis and Bluebeard again go investigating and find out that Joker was killed, but there were no signs of a struggle, as if Joker let himself be murdered willingly and in some place where his body wouldn't be easily found (tucked between a row of pottery on the very top shelf in the back room of his home). Back at Francis' place, whilst looking at an old Egyptian book, Francis realizes that the cat he mated with might be an old breed dating back to the ancient days of Egypt, genetically or phonetically. He puts the pieces together, figuring that the killer was trying to resurrect the breed through selective breeding, and killing any cats who would "poison" the breed.

    Francis gets on Pascal's computer, logs into his databases, and learns that Pascal is Claudandus. The cat in question then appears, after ambushing Bluebeard and leaving him grievously wounded, and explains that he killed Preterius and learned genetics after Ziebold took him in and he devised a plan to recreate a pure race of superior cats. But Claudandus is old, and reveals that he has been purposefully making his murders known in hopes that a cat bearing his level of intellect would discover his plans and become his successor; Claudandus explains that Francis was to carry on his legacy after he's gone. Francis refuses. Disgusted by Claudandus and his motives, Francis vows to destroy his work by deleting his accumulated data. Claudandis attacks Francis, knocking the computer off the table, where it crashes to the ground and sends sparks flying, causing a fire that begins to engulf the room. The two cats battle viscously, before Francis lands the killing blow by slicing his claws through Claudandus' underbelly which was already weakened by his stomach cancer.

Francis flees the burning house, stumbling upon Bluebeard's body, still breathing but bleeding heavily. Francis drags Bluebeard out of the burning house and into the snow outside where they lay bleeding. "He lost his innocence, Bluebeard," Francis says, "as man has lost his."

The scene fades to black, before revealing a moment sometime after the fire, Francis is alive and well and Gustov is already packing up to move again. The audience is led to assume that Bluebeard is also alive, though he does not appear before the ending credits starts rolling.

### The Books

In the book series, Francis solves several more murders and other counts of bloody injustice. He finds alliance in other characters such as Hector, Ambrosius, or Adrian, however not all of them are as loyal as they seem. He also discovers one of his encounters with female cats has produced a son, who looks and behaves almost exactly like him. Guilty and sad to hear of the death of his mother, he allows his son to tag along with him in his investigations. Later in another book after Francis left Sancta, he met Aquantine and they soon became official mates and had a litter of kits, including Lemonheart. Aquantine gives birth to mumerous amounts of kitttens produced by Francis in Vainau Sopultra.

## Trivia

* Ulrich Tukur voices Francis in the German version.
* Francis's breed is a Tuxedo cat.
* He has a owner named Gustav.
* His occupation is a detective.
* His parents were not seen or mentioned in the movie.
* Aquantine is Francis' his last mate
* Aquantine and Francis have plenty of ship names. But the common one is Francintine.