Thank you all!

Yes my plan is to have the O2 sensors checked and if it’s bad replace the cat.

That outcome is not uncertain.

My understanding of a bad cat is that there are two other outcomes, and these are the ones that concern me: the outcome where I pollute slightly too much for a couple weeks until I replace it. Or an outcome where I get stranded on a desert road as the cat gets blocked and the engine stalls out or does damage to itself. Those are important distinctions to me .

I’m also at Black Friday in a smaller town right before a weekend and missing days of work and pay on the other end while waiting here for an open mechanic isn’t ideal either but obvs better than the stranded one