MANY cats accustomed to warm fires, free food and soft beds would struggle to fend for themselves in the wild.

Yet Colin the confident, strutting Bengal is no ordinary feline.

So when he was recovered after going missing for two years, it was like he had never been away.

Owner Andrea Griffiths said: “When we got him home he strolled in, ate the dog food, and acted like he had never been away.

“He dominates the house, so he has taken back his role of being in charge.”

Colin went missing in June 2011, shortly after the Griffiths family moved from Chilton to Wallingford.

The wandering moggie was found at the Cholsey Meadows development at the former Fairmile Hospital, and taken to a vet, where a microchip linked him to his owner.

“I did think he was alive,” said Ms Griffiths. “ He’s a very big character. He’s very affectionate to people, he doesn’t like any other animals, he dominates everybody.”

Pigeon feet and feathers are often all that remains of the mighty Colin’s prey, she said.

“He’s a very good hunter. All the cats I have had don’t hunt, they’re domesticated. They don’t hunt to kill and eat, but he does.

“He’s very big still – really heavy.”

It is not known how Colin managed to keep so well fed, though his owner believes his people skills would have put him in good stead with cat lovers.

Now he is back home with Andrea, her partner James Baker, 50, and son Rhys Griffiths, 20 and their other pets – two dogs and a cat – the more mild-mannered Chinese crested dog Lue, Dandie Dinmont terrier William and ageing ginger tom Marmaduke.

Ms Griffiths said: “I don’t think they were that pleased to see him back.”

She said Colin’s homecoming showed the importance of microchips placed in the pet and linked to a database of owners’ addresses.

The Wood Street resident said: “I have always done it. This has made it even more obvious.”

Colin was taken to Larkmead Veterinary Group in Cholsey after being found by Michelle Jones, 31. The IT project manager said he had been crying for some weeks and sleeping in bike sheds.

After coaxing him out with milk, she said: “He’s such a friendly little cat. If I hadn’t had a dog, I probably would have kept him.”

She said she was shocked to discover his long absence, adding: “You wish they had a CCTV camera on them, so you can see where they went.”

Vet Susie Pattenden said: “He was in good condition. His body weight was fine, he didn’t seem to be too worse for wear. Sometimes they’re very, very thin. Two years is a particularly long time.”

Colin is not the only county pet to have had a big adventure:

2007: Lynx the 12-year-old tabby is found in Carterton – 10 years after going missing 60 miles away in Hook, Hampshire.

2010: Ginger cat Tom Fudge, 11, is found in Manchester, three years on from going AWOL from Wendlebury, near Bicester.

2011: Poodle Archie is found yelping in Abingdon Road, Oxford – 18 months after he went missing from Essex, 100 miles away.

2011: Ian Kirkwood is stunned to see lost cat Sar Chi on the website of animal charity Blue Cross after six years away from Berrick Salome, South Oxfordshire.

2012: Kariba strolls back into the family home in Horspath, Oxford, after nine months, only to be greeted by new feline Obi. Owner the Rev Clare Hayns says: “They aren’t too keen on each other.”