Thousands of people have signed a petition to stop a 17-year-old stray cat from being evicted from its home outside a historical palace in Dubrovnik, Croatia’s tourism hub.

Anastasia is a local cat and tourist favourite who spends her days in front of the 14th-century Rector’s Palace in the Old City.

Despite efforts to give her a home, she always returns to the palace, prompting volunteers to place a cardboard box on the palace porch for her.

The city’s museum authority, which is located in the building, was not impressed.

An animal lover built her a miniature wooden home in the form of the palace, along with a sign with Anastasia’s name and a blend of Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque architecture.

The cultural guardians also objected to that dwelling, and it was ordered to be removed.

No one is allowed to modify Dubrovnik’s “unique cultural and historic whole, especially by adding shelters or residences,” according to the museum administration.

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Anastasia’s removal sparked outrage on social media, with 12,000 people signing a petition seeking her restoration as of Saturday.

“It’s her home,” Srdjan Kera, the architect of Anastasia’s abode, said regretfully. “We’re only talking about one cat, not 70 of them.”

Mayor Mato Frankovic of Dubrovnik has supported the exhibition, emphasizing, evidently without sarcasm, that the Pearl of the Adriatic has only fat cats and “no skinny ones.”

In a similar incident, a 17-year-old cat was abandoned by its family and finally found a happy place.

Her family decided Kaelle, the piebald, was no longer desired when she was 17 years old and has been swept away from her familiar surroundings, completely confused and puzzled.

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The old cat kept her head down the entire time she was at the vet’s office. She sat silently in the corner of her kennel, barely raising her head when the team arrived to check on her.

They tried to cheer her up by telling her that she was safe during her welfare check.

The owner of Chatons Orphelins Montréal, a cat shelter in Montreal, Canada, was upset by the situation and took action. They were able to find a foster family for the piebald so that She could be raised and loved in a family setting.