Caturday felid trifecta: The cat that inherited $13 million; cats in NYT; cats help students learn genetics; and lagniappe

From Now I Know we have the story of a moggy who became a multimillionare. Click on the title to see the tail. . .

Actually, at first the money didn’t go to the cat, but to an animal rescue organization. An excerpt:

. . . . . we can still imagine what a pet would purchase if they had more money than they would ever need. Would they splurge on gourmet treats? Build a mansion with a room dedicated to chasing laser pointers? Or maybe just nap on a pile of cash?

For one Italian cat named Tommaso, this isn’t just a hypothetical—it’s his reality. Kind of.

In 2007, Tommaso was a homeless kitten, living on the streets of Rome — your stereotypical alley cat. He quickly became the feline equivalent of a rags-to-riches story when a woman named Maria Assunta, then either 89 or 90 years old, adopted Tommaso as her own. Tommaso became one of Assunta’s few companions; her husband, a property magnate, predeceased her, and she didn’t have any children (and apparently, not a lot of friends). And when Assunta passed away in 2011, she left her entire fortune—$13 million—to Tommaso. Yes, you read that right: the cat became a multimillionaire.

Of course, you can’t easily leave cash to a cat, but that’s what lawyers are for. As the Times of India reported, “Lawyers Anna Orecchioni and Giacinto Canzona who are representing her say that she left the fortune to Tommasino in a will she wrote and deposited with them in their office in Rome in October 2009. Orecchioni explained that under Italian law Tommassino is not entitled to inherit the money directly and the will also asked for the money to be given to a ‘worthy animal association, if one could be found.’ She added: ‘We had requests from several organizations but we didn’t find any that we thought suitable.’”

The solution was to give control of the money to a nurse who had cared for Assunta instead. The nurse — identified in the press only as Stefania, to protect her from people who want the cat’s money — was named as the trustee of the millions for the benefit of the cat. Stefania was apparently unaware of her late employer’s wealth, but didn’t seem to mind that it went to the cat and not her. As she told the Telegraph, “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. 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.”

Tommaso’s newfound wealth catapulted him into the ranks of the world’s richest animals. He’s in good company, joining the likes of Grumpy Cat, whose internet fame brought in millions. But Tommaso’s story stands out because it’s not about fame or business ventures—it’s about love and loyalty.

Here’s a Tik Tok video purporting to show the wealthy Tommaso. But of course a cat cannot spend $13 million, even the late Karl Lagerfeld’s famous cat Choupette, who had an unknown amount of money (surely large) and her own maid and fancy vittles to nom.

@urhobofinest

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