Ms. H decided she had to move out of her mother’s apartment last spring after her drug-addicted sister held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her.

She packed up her stuff and her 6-year-old son and called a domestic violence hotline.

When the hotline worker asked if she had a safe place to leave her cat, Ms. H froze.

“My mother is telling me, ‘If you say you have to bring the cat with you, they’re going to say no,’” Ms. H said.

Until very recently, pet owners who were abused invariably had to choose between staying with their abusers or leaving without their pets, because virtually no domestic violence shelters allowed pets.