This is the moment a woman was told her missing cat had been found after almost seven years - 300 yards down the road<br /><br />Stephanie Barstow had bought Duke, a Bengal, in May 2015.<br /><br />But he then vanished in January 2017 and, after months of angst, she gave up hope of ever finding him.<br /><br />So she was shocked when a local vet knocked on her door last month - and told her Duke had been found.<br /><br />The vet told Stephanie the cat was discovered in a factory just 300 yards from her house in Corby, Northants.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />"But she was a vet.<br /><br />“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.<br /><br />“I was absolutely shocked - I just completely broke down.” <br /><br />Stephanie had bought Duke and his brother Nero when they were six weeks old, after having her first child.<br /><br />She enjoyed owning them, and was left devastated when Duke disappeared.<br /><br />Stephanie said: “I’m not completely sure why Duke didn’t come home that night.<br /><br />"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.<br /><br />I got very depressed and stressed about it.<br /><br />"I was scared because one of the neighbour’s cats had been killed by a fox at the time – I thought he might have been in danger."<br /><br />She began intensively searching around her neighbourhood with family and five people in her local area, including in a nearby woodland area, knocking on houses and leaving posters. <br /><br />But after eight months of searching, and with no reported sightings of Duke, Stephanie gave up the search – but always remained hopeful that he would return one day. <br /><br />And she was at home on December 21 when the vet knocked on her door - and told her Duke had been found in a nearby factory.<br /><br />The moment she was told was captured on her Ring doorbell.<br /><br />Stephanie said that since Duke was initially micro-chipped, the contact number she provided at the time was now incorrect and that she had not updated the number to her new one.<br /><br />She said: “Luckily enough though, the vet had recognised Duke because of his distinctive facial markings and white paws, and had remembered that I was looking for him! <br /><br />“She tried ringing the number assigned to the microchip and it didn’t work, so she drove straight to my house instead!<br /><br />“The vet told us that Duke had been taken in by staff at the factory all this time.<br /><br />"They had even built him a little shed to sleep in and a feeding station. But they since had to bring him to the vet as it was no longer safe at the factory for him.”<br /><br />After Duke had been found, Stephanie had to make a decision about whether to bring him home.<br /><br />Since he went missing she had bought a dog and had had another child – and so she decided it would be in the best interest of Duke if he went to a new home. <br /><br />She added: “I was really worried that if he came home he might go back to the factory where it was no longer safe for him.<br /><br />“I just felt so much guilt over what had happened to him, so I went to visit his new owner.<br /><br />"She had just had her house renovated and it’s got so much open space and is quiet – it was perfect.<br /><br />“It was a very difficult decision but I think it was the best one for Duke.”<br /><br />Stephanie says Duke is now happy and safe at his new home and she receives regular updates from his owner.<br /><br />She also says that it is important for people who are now looking for a missing pet to never lose hope.<br /><br />She added: “I wanted to share my story to give hope to other animal lovers and people in my situation to never give up – you never know what might happen.”
