The Eviction — Elaine Waldron

Times are hard enough for the elderly Eula White, trying to make ends meet, when her not so understanding landlord, Kyle Phillips, comes to collect her late rent and discovers she has been hiding her pet cat. Infuriated, he kicks her cat out into the snow and freezing weather and gives her twenty-four hours to get out.
The Eviction is a short story, not a novelette.