She had lost all hope of seeing her cherished cat again after two years.

But now Katy the meandering moggy is back – after ending up in a village in the heart of the Norfolk countryside.

Sharon King, from Bernham Road, Hellesdon, assumed four-year-old Katy was dead after a seemingly futile search, including pinning posters up around the local area.

And absence certainly made the heart grow fonder as Ms King, 58, and her cat were reunited on Friday – after Katy was picked up wandering around 20 miles away in Bintree.

Ms King, who has four other cats, said she was baffled as to how her cat got so far, and suspected she had been hiding in passing cars. She was eventually traced back home because she had been micro-chipped and brought to Dereham Cats Protection.

'I got a call from the national database that do micro-chipping asking me to call them, and they said they had my cat. I had no idea what they meant, because I had just fed my cats.

'When they described her I realised what they meant, and I said 'do you realise she has been missing for two years?'.'

She added: 'Katy was one of the latest additions. She belonged to a friend of mine who picked her up as a stray, and I adopted her. She was very homely and got on really well in the house, especially with the dog.

'She was always happy at home and all of a sudden she just disappeared, which was very unusual. We did flyers on the lamp-posts all around Hellesdon and put pictures on lost-and-found sites but nothing ever came up.

'I just thought she was dead. When I got the call I was absolutely flabbergasted. I couldn't believe she was still alive, and that she was traced back to me after so long. It was just unbelievable.'