Having a black cat cross your path may be considered unlucky, but people may think differently if it was one particular black cat in Italy.

Not only was four-year-old Tommaso rescued as a kitten from the streets of Rome, but now he has inherited more than $13 million. The flea-bitten alley cat was rescued by a lonely old lady named Maria Assunta, who was married to a property tycoon. Assunta widowed early and the couple had no children.

When her health began to fail a few years ago, she wanted Tommaso to be the sole beneficiary of her estate.

She initially wanted to give the money to an animal welfare group to take care of the cat, but none of them met her standards. So Assunta left all of the money to Tommaso though a nurse who took care of her in her final months.

"I promised her that I would look after the cat when she was no longer around," said Stefania, the nurse in a Telegraph article. "She wanted to be sure that Tommaso would be loved and cuddled. But I never imagined that she had this sort of wealth."

While the nurse said Assunta didn't share a lot of details about her life, she said Assunta talked about suffering from loneliness.

"We're convinced that Stefania is the right person to carry out the old lady's wishes," said Anna Orecchioni, one of the lawyers, to Il Messaggero. "She loves animals just like the woman she devoted herself to right up until the end."

Assunta isn't the first person to donate millions to an pet. In 2007, hotel billionaire Leona Helmsley left $12 million to her white Maltese named Trouble. Fashion designer Alexander McQueen left his pets $50,000 and going back a long way, American heiress Ella Wendel left her pet poodle $24 million in 1931.

Assunta will also not be the last. Oprah Winfrey has let it be known that her dogs will inherit close to $50 million if they outlive her.

Technically speaking, Assunta couldn't actually leave the money directly to Tommaso, so instead left it to the cat through a person who must take care of Tommaso, which would make Italy's laws similar to those in Canada.

In provinces such as Ontario, one can't directly give money to a pet because pets are considered property and therefore can't accept a gift. If a person in Ontario were hoping to give money to a pet, he or she would have to do so through a trust, by linking a charitable gift to an animal agency or by giving money to someone with the condition that he or she must take care of the animal.

As for Tommaso, we are not sure how he will be spending his money, but $13 million would sure by a nice litter box.