One cat from Italy has just gotten a windfall when its owner, the widow of an Italian property mogul, left behind all her wealth to a kitty she picked up, which she found roaming listlessly in Rome four years ago.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the wealthy woman identified as Maria Assunta had decided to give all her assets to a feline that she cared for four years ago, which the paper said amount to $13 million.

Assunta died two weeks ago, the Telegraph said, and her inheritance includes three real estate properties spread in Italy with considerable amounts of cash, according to reports by local dailies.

Now a four-year-old cat, Tommaso, according to Assunta's lawyers will be cared for by the rich matron's former nurse, named by the Telegraph as Stefania.

Stefania has been a long-time companion of Assunta, who had no children, and looked after the widow until the day that she passed away.

One of Rome's local newspapers quoted Assunta's lawyer as attesting that through the years of having Stefania, the widow "had become very fond towards the nurse who assisted her."

"We're convinced that Stefania is the right person to carry out the old lady's wishes. She loves animals just like the woman she devoted herself to right up until the end," lawyer Anna Orecchioni was quoted by ABC News as saying.

Orecchioni added that Assunta had formally chosen Tommaso and Stefania as recipients of all her wealth as early as November 2009 following failure to "identify an animal welfare association or group to which to leave the estate and the commitment of looking after Tommaso."

As soon as the transfer has been formalised, the two were relocated to an undisclosed home outside of Rome to ensure their safety, ABC said.

In an interview with the Telegraph, Stefania admitted that she was surprise that her employer had entrusted to her such enormous wealth, adding that "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 said in recalling her impression of Assunta.

She vowed that the old lady's kitty would be taken care of in the way her boss had instructed.

"She wanted to be sure that Tommaso would be loved and cuddled ... She looked after that cat more than you'd look after a son," the nurse stressed.