Frannie the chihuahua loves Hoffman Estates mail carrier, and, thanks to social media, the whole world knows it

Some people have wondered whether Frannie and Dan were devoted to each other in an earlier life — how else to explain the way they behave when they’re together?

But even that doesn’t quite hit the mark. When Dan pulls up to the curb, Frannie greets him — every time — as if he’d been shipwrecked at sea and she has just learned he survived.

And she always looks her gorgeous best — in sequins, taffeta, even a cute little number in pink leopard print.

To show her absolute devotion, she leans in, her lips parted, and then she slurps his face — over and over again.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

It’s a morning ritual that Frannie’s owner Lisa Laskey has captured every weekday — hundreds of times — on her cellphone, which she then posts on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

And people can’t get enough of Dan Larsen, Laskey’s Hoffman Estates mail carrier, and Frannie, her tricolored, 2-year-old chihuahua.

One video showing Frannie darting out the door to greet Larsen drew 16 million viewers on Facebook, according to Laskey.

Giddy responses from “Frannie Nation” — as Laskey calls the loved-up couple’s followers — include people undergoing chemotherapy, in drug rehab or trying to cope with the loss of a loved one.

“My heart just exploded! Passing tissues,” wrote one follower on TikTok.

“This is way better than ‘The Bachelor!’” wrote another.

“I hope you guys realize this relationship is being supported worldwide. I’m from the UK.”

Oh, yes, Laskey, a former piano teacher, does realize. Creating, editing and posting videos from her home has become a full-time job, she said. But that’s just the start. One room in the Laskey home is entirely devoted to Frannie Nation. Glittery, gauzy outfits — most donated by Frannie-and-Dan fans — fill the room’s closet. One wall is smothered in faux magazine covers celebrating “special occasions” — including Larsen’s and Frannie’s birthdays and Valentine’s Day.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

In another room, there’s a large toy mail truck that Frannie “drives” and that Laskey used at Christmas last year to deliver 1,500 cards from fans to Larsen. There are Frannie-and-Dan tote bags, T-shirts and coffee mugs for sale — with a third of those proceeds going to a pet rescue agency, the Almost Home Foundation in Schaumburg, which has received $11,000 so far.

“The greatest compliment I’ve received is that people know I’m not editing this to look like something,” says Laskey, 61. “This is the real thing. You can’t make up this kind of love.”

It all began in October 2021, not long after Laskey and her husband, Dwayne, brought Frannie home from a boutique pet store. She was gray, fluffy and about the size of a big potato.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Larsen pulled up in his mail truck one morning. Lisa Laskey went out, cradling Frannie, and said: “‘Would you like to meet the newest member of the Laskey family?’ I handed her to him … She kissed his face like they were long lost lovers.”

Larsen, a dog lover, ate it up.

“Every time I see her, it’s like the very first time. It doesn’t get old,” says Larsen, 64.

There’s another dog — a golden retriever — on Larsen’s route, but their relationship is strictly platonic. And if a fill-in mail carrier stops by, Frannie will poke her moist nose out the door, waddle halfway down the driveway to see if it’s her main man, then turn and head back in.

So just how does Frannie really feel about Larsen?

Her pale brown eyes convey an expression of earnest longing whenever Larsen is approaching. She mewls softly.

In fact, Frannie’s affections are so ardent that Laskey has to cover her little tufted ears whenever she mentions Larsen — so it doesn’t send the chihuahua racing for the front door.

Laskey also has a call button that, when Frannie hits it, says: “Postman Dan.”

“That’s his actual voice,” Laskey says, before cooing in Frannie’s ear, “Who do you want to see?”

Frannie swats the button.