Beloved honorary cat mayor in small Alaska town dies at 20

In this photo provided by Sandy Bubar, Stubbs lies on a tarp in an alley in Talkeetna, Alaska, Wednesday, July 11, 2012.

TALKEETNA, Alaska -- Stubbs, the honorary feline mayor of the Alaska town of Talkeetna, has died at the age of 20.

The animal's owners announced the cat's death late Saturday in a statement.

"Stubbs lived for 20 years and 3 months," the family wrote. "He was a trooper until the very last day of his life; meowing at us throughout the day to pet him or to come sit on the bed with him and let him snuggle and purr for hours in our lap. Thank you, Stubbs, for coming into our lives for the past 31 months; you are a remarkable cat and we will dearly miss you. We loved the time we were allowed to spend with you."

According to Stubb's family, Mayor Stubbs, as the cat was most commonly known, went to bed Thursday and died overnight, KTVA-TV reports.

Talkeetna, a town with a population of about 900, elected the yellow cat mayor in a write-in campaign in 1998.

There is no human mayor in the town.

Stubbs had survived an attack by a dog in 2013 and a false report of his death last year. But by late 2016, he was largely staying at home instead of being out and about at local Nagley's General Store.

Although Stubbs is gone, one of his owners' kittens might be ready to take up his mayoral mantle.

"Amazingly, Denali has the exact personality as Stubbs," the family wrote of the kitten. "He loves the attention, he's like a little puppy when he's around people. We couldn't have asked for a better understudy than Denali -- he really has followed in Stubbs' pawprints in just about everything."