A Yukon hotel owner is hoping a mummified house cat will become the latest quirky tourist attraction.

It took more than 50 years, but the cat finally came back, and now has a new home in the bar at the Capital Hotel in Whitehorse.

Preserved feline occupies place of honor in Whitehose bar

The cat now lies in state in a place of honour in the popular downtown watering hole.

The perfectly preserved feline was first discovered a few months ago, under some floorboards in the boiler room at the Hotel.

Hotel manager Jonas Smith says so many people were sneaking downstairs to take a peak, he decided something had to be done.

"As morbid as the idea is, when you look at you realize the scientific merit of it," he says. "It's so well preserved, it still has whiskers and teeth and other parts of it's anatomy that indicate its gender."

It's believed the cat crept into a crawlspace under the floorboards sometime in the 1940's when the Capital hotel was an army warehouse.

The building was abandoned when the Alaska Highway was completed and was later resurrected as a hotel.

It's not exactly a pretty site for those sitting at the bar.

But the petrified pussycat is creating a buzz with patrons. Some are comparing it to the quirky cocktail served up in Dawson City that contains a preserved human toe.

• LINK: History of Sourtoe-Cocktail

"I would compare it to the sour toe in Dawson City, one says. "People look at it and say, hey it's amazing, as long as we don't have a toe from the cat we're doing okay."

Staff at the Capital are hoping word of the flat cat spreads enough to rival that infamous sour toe cocktail.