RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne with a story of rags to riches, where the underdog is an alley cat. Tommaso began life as a stray in the streets of Rome until he was rescued by a wealthy widow. The 94-year-old had no children, according to ABC News. So when she died last month, she left her entire fortune to the cat - more than $13 million. That makes Tommaso the world's third richest animal heir, behind a German shepherd and a chimpanzee. It's MORNING EDITION.
Copyright © 2011 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.