Her cat, seeing who it's owner was, decided not to exercise the option on one of her remaining 8 lives. 
Sadly, there is much truth in this. Our pets absorb all our emotions, the good and the bad. I had an aunt and uncle who engaged in alcoholism when I was a boy and they had this beautiful dog but the stress of living in that environment, and I only ever saw a shadow of the darkness of that lifestyle, brought it illness and an early death.
In the Philip K. Dick novel,
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? androids are stand ins for sociopath humans and this part was stolen by the movie Network, Howard Beal's Humanoids, but Dick makes the point that pets don't do well in an environment of emotionally stunted people.
The movie, Blade Runner, totally cocked up this point but is a fine movie on it's own.