It makes sense that people value their pets because of their innocence. They provide balance to a life that has plenty of evil out there lurking around.

I think things can get "weird" as different people will disagree on when innocence should be applied. For example would some people apply innocence to describe someone who had a psychotic break and ended up killing people? Is it fair to say they didn't have control over their actions? Should that one moment in life remove the years of innocence leading up to that tragic event?

All interesting things to ponder, but as you stated there are no absolutes. Sorry about the loss of your cat @meno. Sounds like she lived a long amazing life.