In "The Black Cat," what or who is the conflict between? How does the conflict have an effect on the reader?

The main conflict of The Black Cat is between the narrator and the titular black cat, named Pluto by the narrator. The two start out as being very close, but as the narrator grows older and becomes an alcoholic, he removes one of the cat's eyes and eventually hangs the cat from a tree. This is the start of the major conflict of the story. Although other characters come into play during this story, it is alluded that all the problems come from Pluto. The night after hanging the cat, the narrator's house burns down completely, leaving only the wall where the head of the narrator's bed had been. Upon that wall was a shadow in the shape of a cat with a rope around its neck. The conflict continues when the narrator gets a new cat that is almost exactly like Pluto, with one exception: it has a white spot on it. The spot grows more distinct eventually and becomes the shape of the gallows. Then, when she stopped him from trying to kill the new cat, the narrator killed his wife; and he is only found out because he had accidentally walled the cat in with his wife's body and it was meowing when the police came to investigate. All of the trouble, all of the events that happened, can be traced back to the narrator's conflict with Pluto.