2008 Prius: AC and Catalytic Converter went out the same day

I have been speaking with different service places regarding fixing both of these issues, but before I finalize any decisions, I wanted to post the question: is there anyway these two items going out on the same day may be linked? Within a 24 hour period, the AC stopped blowing cold air and the check engine light went on 12 hours later. I took this to the dealer and they said the check engine was due to a bad catalytic converter.

The Toyota dealer I went on to say these two events were complete coincidence, but I can't help but wonder if the thing that may be causing the catalytic converter to go bad may be the same thing that caused the AC to stop blowing cold air. Are these two items completely separate or should this give further indication of a problem deeper in the system that would just cause these items (and more) to go out or continue to malfunction after replacement?

 

I was provided the link and posted the above thread. I will repost to 2nd generation.

The car has had a tune-up within the last year and has about 145k miles. I don't feel the power is going, but the gas mileage did drop to 41-42mpg. The dealer did reset the check engine light over the weekend and the light has not reappeared as of yet. I was told to wait 3-4 days for the computer to re-read any internal issues and the check engine light should reappear at that time (although they mentioned this could take longer). My 2nd opinion would like to wait until the light reappears and re-read the coding to see if it could be another issue outside the CAT. I'm just nervous as I have a long road trip at the end of the month and I don't want the light to reappear in the mountains without being near a mechanic. I may just need to rent a car until the issue can be properly identified.

Thank you everyone for your help.