Cats on average live to their early teens.
Let's say about 10 years to round down.
It works out to about a dollar a day.
Surely having a playful companion that doesn't make you break out in hive and sneezing fits is worth as much as cable TV?
If you drop picking up Starbucks on the way to work on weekdays and take your own instead you can easily cover the cost of one of the cats. It doesn't seem too unreasonable to me.
Of course I don't really have the cash on hand and can't have pets in my apartment anyway, so I'm fine with waiting for the early adopters to shell out the money and for the price the drop in a few years.