A cat that had been missing for seven years has ben reunited with its owner after being found in the factory next door. Stephanie Barstow bought Duke, a Bengal, in May 2015.
But he then vanished in January 2017 and, after months of angst, she gave up hope of ever finding him. So she was shocked when a local vet knocked on her door last month – and told her Duke had been found.
The vet told Stephanie that the cat was discovered in a factory just 300 yards from her house in Corby, Northants. It is unclear where Duke had been living, or how he had been surviving.
Executive assistant Stephanie, 35 said: “When I first opened the door, I thought it was a debt collector or someone like that, because she asked me to confirm my name – I was panicking. But she was a vet.
“She asked me if I was the owner of a cat called Duke – I couldn’t believe it. She told me that he had been found just 300 yards away from my home at a factory. I was absolutely shocked – I just completely broke down.”
Stephanie had bought Duke and his brother Nero when they were six weeks old, after having her first child. She enjoyed owning them, and was left devastated when Duke disappeared.
Stephanie said: “I’m not completely sure why Duke didn’t come home that night. I just remember he had a little bit of a fight with Nero and I knew something was not quite right. We had just had the baby too, so there was a lot of change going on and I know cats don’t really like change.”
