"Mittens had been somewhat known in Wellington and previously in Auckland for a while," Sam, the administrator of Mittens' Facebook group told Bored Panda. "I do think that he became a celebrity cat after the Facebook group was created and word started spreading! As for his recent global fame, I really have no idea how that started! International members have been joining the group for a while as people invited friends and family."

"What made this beautiful cat so popular is his strange way of making the city his own," Sam tells Bored Panda. "He will go into whatever shop he chooses and just pick a place to sleep. He has no cares in the world about it. He loves to both explore new places, or frequent the same shop/business a few days in a row. He will even get into lifts and go up several storeys! When he does this he just follows people in and gets out when they get out. Never knowing where he is going to end up. His sense of adventure and carefree attitude is surely to be admired. He is normally pretty keen for pats and pictures with his self named “Smittens”. So the fact that the cute cat is very friendly has also led to his popularity."

When asked by Bored Panda, whether there are many tourists who come to Wellington to see Mittens, Sam said: "Yes! I have heard of a few people who have made the trip to Wellington especially to go Mittens hunting. Also if people are coming here for another reason, they often make time to see if they can find the king. The Facebook group is great for this as people post cat photos and sightings of him often."

"He lets people know when he is not up for attention as he will just walk right by them and not stop for pats," the owner and administrator of Mittens' Facebook group told Bored Panda. "He has also been known to let people know when he does not want to be picked up or moved, with a light warning scratch. This happened to the poor employee from EB Games (gaming retail store) last night. Mittens spent his afternoon there sleeping on Xbox and PlayStation games on their sale table. He did not want to move and had to be evicted at closing time!"

"I noticed there had been a lot of posts on one on Wellington’s Facebook community groups about him with concerns from people that he was lost or didn’t have a home because he was in the middle of the city," the Facebook group administrator told Bored Panda. "He was brought into the SPCA a few times also, which meant that his owner had to come and get him. We frequently (almost daily) got calls about him at the SPCA. I decided I would create a Facebook Group for him to raise awareness about the fact that he had an owner, was healthy, and knew how to get around the city. I created this group on 6th April 2018 and shared a link in the previously mentioned Wellington community Facebook group. The group quickly gained members and the calls about him to the SPCA slowed down. His owner Silvio also said he wasn’t getting as many calls about him either. Mittens normally wears a collar with Silvios number on it, so you can imagine he got a lot of calls!"

"I started the group slightly out of frustration because of well meaning people calling about him or taking him to vet clinics or SPCA when it wasn’t needed," Sam says. "I never ever expected it to get this big. I have since taken on two more moderators to be able to keep up with the workload!I continue the group these days for the pure joy Mittens being people who meet him and to help with the fun of people who are Mittens hunting. Even people who will never meet him who are overseas, say they enjoy getting their “daily Mittens dose” and look forward to seeing his pictures and latest antics."

We asked Sam whether she was lucky enough to get to meet the Royal Mittens, to which she replied: "I have met Mittens myself. I have seen him at the SPCA a couple of times. I have never met him out in the wild as I am not often in town. The couple of times I have been in town I have not been able to find him.In person he is just as floofy and charming as he looks! He is so loving and friendly and makes cute trilling noises to say hello."