History Main / PetHeir

*** The $12 million trust fund Leona Helmsley left to Trouble, her Maltese dog, is a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of her fortune, which she willed to a charitable trust. The dog's "inheritance" was later whittled down to $2 million as the judge determined Helmsley was senile when she executed the will. The remaining $10 million was split between Helmsley's charitable trust and two of her grandchildren that she [[PassedOverInheritance spitefully disinherited]].

* TruthInTelevision. Look up [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leona_Helmsley Leona Helmsley]] and [[http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37820841/ns/today-today_people?GT1=43001 Gail Posner]].
** Although with Leona Helmsley, what she left to her dog (a $12 million trust fund) is a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of her fortune, which she willed to a charitable trust. The dog's trust fund was later whittled down to $2 million as the judge determined Helmsley was senile when she executed the will. The remaining $10 million was split between Helmsley's charitable trust and two of her grandchildren that she [[PassedOverInheritance spitefully disinherited]].
* In reality, this sort of thing usually takes the form of a trust, not a will, as in many countries animals are actually not considered eligible to directly inherit money (owing to the fact that they cannot possess it), so an owner would have to put the money in a trust to be used for the benefit of the animal. This is often recommended in the cases of pets with particularly long lifespans that are likely to exceed the owner's (parrots and tortoises, usually), as said pets tend to be harder to get adopted into new homes.

* TruthInTelevision. Look up [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leona_Helmsley Leona Helmsley]] and [[http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37820841/ns/today-today_people?GT1=43001 Gail Posner]]. Although with Leona Helmsley, what she left to her dog (a $12 million trust fund) is a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of her fortune, which she willed to a charitable trust.

That's the concept behind the Pet Heir plot. HilarityEnsues as the new caretakers of the pet struggle to keep the pet alive despite the efforts of unscrupulous sorts, that is, {{Inadequate Inheritor}}s who are next in line to inherit should "anything unfortunate" happen to the pet in question.

** After Clarita's relatives head to the reading of her will, it turns out that Clarita [[ProperlyParanoid (feeling that her relatives were far too]] [[InadequateInheritor selfish and greedy to inherit her fortune)]] names María and Mimi as her only beneficiaries--or, to be more accurate, Clarita leaves her entire fortune to Mimi and wants María to act as the dog's guardian. [[HilarityEnsues After this, the movie revolves around the relatives trying to scare María to death so they can get a hold of the dog and the fortune.]]

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Discussed by Miss Brooks and her landlady Mrs. Davis at the beginning of "Mr. Casey's Will". Then inverted: Mrs. Davis' sister Angela is heartbroken over the demise of her cat Mr. Casey. To honour her late cat, Angela has her lawyer write a will with ''Mr. Casey at the testator''. Angela wishes to use this to honour Mr. Casey's (human) friends. Miss Brooks finds herself acting as the executrix of the will. HilarityEnsues.

[[quoteright:344:[[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/milliondollarcat.png]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'':

* The 1951 film ''Film/YouNeverCanTell'' started with a dog inheriting a fortune and immediately being killed and his caretaker suspected. The dog's spirit is sent back to earth as a "humanimal", detective Rex Shepherd (Dick Powell), to, errr, sniff out the crime.

* Radio/TheFrantics sketch "Last Will and Temperament" subverts this, with the late Arthur Muldoon leaving his pet cat Mittens "[his] [[BaitAndSwitch entire, vast]]... [[CatchPhrase boot to the head]]" (cue [[ThatPoorCat cat yowling in the background]]).

* TruthInTelevision. Look up [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leona_Helmsley Leona Helmsley]] and [[http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37820841/ns/today-today_people?GT1=43001 Gail Posner]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/MillionaireDogs'', a woman left her fortune to her several animals while her nephew and her niece got nothing. The evil duo then tricked the animals out of the house and tried to keep them out for 48 hours in a row so they could invoke an obscure law to claim the inheritance to themselves.

* This is what kicks off the plot of ''El mieo no anda en burro''[[note]]"Fear doesn't ride a donkey" in Spanish[[/note]], a comedy/horror-film from Mexico, starring La India María as María Nicolasa Cruz. To go into greater detail:

* On ''Series/RescueMe'', Tommy's father marries a rich woman and hopes to inherit her fortune when she suddenly dies. After an extensive spending spree, the family finds out that he inherited $50,000, and the rest was left to her various cats.

* One episode of ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' has Rose inherit her uncle's [[HousepetPig pet pig]], Baby, who has himself inherited a lot of money. The other Girls are not thrilled with the development.

** In "Lisa's First Word," after Marge is discovered to be pregnant with her and Homer's second child (i.e., Lisa), the couple goes house-hunting for a bigger place. One of the homes they consider is full cats--when Homer says, "Once we get the cats out of the way, it won't be so bad," the realtor helping them explains that, according the will of the cats' previous owner, the cats are the ones who own the house and that if the Simpsons were to move in, they would technically be the cats' "tenants."

-->(''violence stops'')\\

** "Casanova Cat" starts with the news that female cat, Toodles, recently inherited a million dollars. Naturally, her wealth and beauty draw suitors, including Tom.

** Sylvester is left a fortune in the short ''WesternAnimation/HeirConditioned''. To his dismay, Elmer Fudd becomes his financial adviser and wants him to invest the fortune while Sylvester wants to spend it and trying to give some of it to some alley cat friends of his. After all the trouble that Sylvester goes through because of this, to the point where even the alley cats chastise their colleague for disrupting the economy with his actions, he finally gives in and then growls to the portrait of his mistress that his life would have been less complicated if she took her money with her.

** Another cartoon starts with the news that female cat, Toodles, recently inherited a million dollars. Naturally, her wealth and beauty draw suitors, including Tom.

* This was the plot of the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoon ''The Million-Dollar Cat''. Tom inherits a million dollars that [[OnOneCondition he can only keep if he never harms an animal, "not even a mouse"]]. Jerry takes the opportunity to exploit this and not only mooches as much as he can, he actively torments Tom (more so than usual, at least). Tom eventually snaps and tries to clobber Jerry, breaking his role of TheVoiceless to question his own actions:

* In one book of ''Literature/TheSaddleClub'' series, Pine Hollow ends up boarding a horse whose owner had recently died and left most of her multi-million dollar fortune in a trust for said horse, with a provision that whatever is left reverts to her only living relative, her nephew, upon the horse's death. {{Justified|Trope}} in that horses are much more expensive to keep than most animals and this particular horse was too old to sell; the owner had no one in her life that she trusted to look after the horse, so she set up the trust as a way of ensuring that the mare would be able to get good quality care and boarding for the rest of her life. Given that the woman's nephew is a jerk who spends most of the book trying to find a way to subtly kill the horse so he can get his hands on the trust (having already blown through the six-figure sum that was his immediate inheritance from his aunt), the protagonists agree that the horse probably deserved it more anyway.

* In reality, this sort of thing usually takes the form of a trust, not a will, as animals are actually not considered eligible to directly inherit money (owing to the fact that they cannot possess it), so an owner would have to put the money in a trust to be used for the benefit of the animal. This is often recommended in the cases of pets with particularly long lifespans that are likely to exceed the owner's (parrots and tortoises, usually), as said pets tend to be harder to get adopted into new homes.

* In reality, this sort of thing usually takes the form of a trust, not a will, as animals can't possess property and therefore can't inherit, so an owner would have to put the money in a trust to be used for the benefit of the animal. This is often recommended in the cases of pets with particularly long lifespans that are likely to exceed the owner's (parrots and tortoises, usually), as said pets tend to be harder to get adopted into new homes.

* People who do this are advised to create a trust for their animal companions, not a will. This is an especially good idea if you have a pet (parrots and tortoises, usually) that tends to have a human lifespan or longer, as said pets tend to be harder to get adopted into new homes.