From the streets of Rome to the halls of luxury, one formerly stay cat has been handed a multimillion euro inheritance.
Maria Assunta, a widow without children, adopted Tommaso the cat four years ago. In 2009, she redrafted her will, leaving her entire estate to Tommaso in a handwritten note.
The executors of her will were instructed to identify an individual or an animal sanctuary in whose care Tommaso could be placed. The guardians would pamper the cat in exchange for controlling the sizable fortune left to Maria Assunta by her late husband.
As the wealthy widow aged, her lawyers attempted to find an animal shelter for the beloved street cat, but none of the welfare societies could meet the high standards Maria Assunta demanded.
Italian law prohibits animals from directly inheriting property or cash, so the only solution was to identify a suitable guardian for the four-year-old cat.
When Maria Assunta passed away at the age of 94, a woman known only as Stefania was placed in charge of Tommaso and his sizable windfall.
"I promised her that I would look after the cat when she was no longer around," explained Stefania, who worked as a Maria Assunta's nurse towards the end of her life.
"She wanted to be sure that Tommaso would be loved and cuddled. But I never imagined that she had this sort of wealth. She was very discreet and quite, I knew very little of her private life. She only told me that she had suffered from loneliness a lot".
Stefania and Tommaso are currently living near Rome.
