A wealthy Italian woman left nearly $14 million to her pet cat. Maria Assunta left her pet cat, Tommaso, everything she had when she died a couple of weeks ago. Assunta had made all of her money in real estate. She left the cat all of that wealth meaning some of it was money and some was in the form of properties in Rome, Calabria and Milan. Tommaso is now the richest cat in the world.
Black Cat Similar to Tommaso - Image via Wikipedia
Assunta had originally planned on giving the money to some sort of animal organization to care for the cat but she ended up letting her nurse, Stefania, decide how to spend the money on the cat. According to Stefania:
The old lady suffered from loneliness. She looked after that cat more than you’d look after a son.
I promised her that I would look after the cat when she was no longer around. She wanted to be sure that Tommaso would be loved and cuddled. But I never imagined that she had this sort of wealth.
In reality, it is prohibited to leave money to animals in Italy but money can be left to care for animals. That is how Assunta got around the legal loophole by entrusting the money to Stefania.
Tomasso had a hard life, in reality. He was rescued by Assunta from the rough Roman streets by Assunta.
Tomasso is not the wealthiest animal in the world, shockingly enough. That honor belongs to Kalu the chimp whose master left him with $80 million.
All of this is, of course, ironic considering Italy’s debt crisis and economic situation is so dire and millions are out of work.
Via: Yahoo! News
