NBC's mega-successful sitcom The Office has been finished for eight years and yet it's still as relevant as ever. Dedicated fans are constantly rewatching and discovering new details about the staff of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch that were previously overlooked. One important moment in The Office is when Angela Martin's cat, Sprinkles, is mercy-killed by her boyfriend, Dwight Schrute. They end up breaking up because of it and it becomes a major event in the story. But what if Sprinkles' death wasn't fully Dwight's fault? A closer look at Season 4, Episodes 1 and 2, "Fun Run" provides an interesting detail that may prove the real cause of Sprinkles' death.

RELATED: The Office: Why Kevin Lost His Job at Dunder Mifflin in Season 9

Sprinkles was Angela's favorite cat. Angela even shows a bunch of pictures of herself and Sprinkles "out on the town." So when Sprinkles turns up dead in her freezer, Angela is understandably livid. But why did she end up there in the first place? Season 4 starts with Michael Scott hitting Meredith Palmer with his car, landing her in the hospital with a cracked pelvis. Pam Beesly, the secretary at the time, organizes a hospital trip during lunch to go visit Meredith. When Pam approaches Angela about her attendance, Angela says she can't go because her cat, Sprinkles, is quite sick and needs attention at home. Angela is known to be closer than normal to her cats, so it's pretty understandable that she'd want to go home on her break and make sure Sprinkles is doing okay.

RELATED: Peacock Hits a Major Milestone, Thanks to The Office's Arrival

But Pam makes a point to guilt-trip Angela into going to the hospital. Pam mentions that organizing the visit isn't even her job, as Angela is head of the party planning committee, and she makes sure to say it with a level of disgust. At first, Angela tries to explain why she needs to see Sprinkles, but after hearing Pam throw her position as head of the party planning committee in her face, Angela quickly changes gears. Now unable to visit Sprinkles on her break, Angela asks Dwight to look after her. Angela gives him an extensive list of medications and treatments which he'll have to administer over the course of his visit, and it's clear that Sprinkles needs a lot of attention.

So poor Sprinkles is left in the hands of Dwight, a farmer by trade. When he sees how sick Sprinkles is, he mercy-kills her as he believes this was the right thing to do to a suffering animal. This causes a major rift in his relationship with Angela, as Angela loves her cats more than anything else. They end up breaking up over this event, as Angela cannot manage to reconcile what happened with her feelings for Dwight. But it's really not Dwight's fault.

RELATED: The Office: What Was Creed's Job, Anyway?

Meredith only had a cracked pelvis. Later they discovered she also had rabies, which is terrible but not life-threatening. From the sounds of it, Sprinkles seemed like she needed more medical attention than Meredith, considering the list of medications and treatments that she needed to take daily. Angela, as a responsible pet owner, should have been at home with Sprinkles, which is what she wanted to do in the first place. It's only because Pam guilt-tripped her into going to visit Meredith that poor Sprinkles was ultimately killed. If Dwight hadn't needed to watch Sprinkles, he wouldn't have seen the state she was in and wouldn't have mercy-killed her.

While we can certainly blame Dwight for directly killing Sprinkles, it's ultimately Pam's fault that the whole situation even happened. Following that logic, it's also her fault that they broke up. Pam shouldn't have guilt-tripped Angela for wanting to take care of her pet, especially when it was just a broken bone that Meredith had. Pam is a fan-favorite on the show, but she certainly has moments that tarnish her reputation, this arguably being the biggest one. Without her unnecessary guilt trip of Angela, Sprinkles may have survived and Dwight and Angela's relationship may have survived without a break.

KEEP READING: The Office: How Staples Saved the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch