In the world of cats there are two main categories of human

I'm simplifying things but it is true. In the cat world - the domestic cat world to be more accurate - you can divide humans into two groups or categories.

1. Those that don't see sentience in the domestic cat and have the potential for cruelty towards their cat; not blatant or obvious cruelty but sometimes insidious slow-motion cruelty.
2. Those that are sensitive or very sensitive to the fact that the domestic cat is a sentient being with the capacity to feel pain and to suffer. These people pick up the pieces left by the other group. To put it another way they rescue cats and the other group throw them away.

Here is a story told by a woman which illustrates the categorisation:

She says that a cat "tried to come into my house at the end of June of this year while we were in the middle of a heat wave in WA". So, this is the US and it must have been damnably hot. The pic below is of the tabby cat concerned before and after rescue.

Rescued cat adopted so respectfully and with kindness. Image: Kitten LaRue (Quora.com).

I have just written an article about whether feral cats come into homes. Well, this story answers the question. They do if they are strays and not true ferals. This tired, old cat had been dumped by their owner because - I guess - they were old and tired and also sick. 

The woman: "discovered the cat was very old, she has been declawed, so there was no way for her to catch any food for herself. The cat was horribly dehydrated, had 104 temperature, she was skin and bones and yet she was so sweet and loving!"

She took the cat to a vet immediately. She was x-rayed and found to have bad arthritis in her back. This may have come about due in part to being outside for a long time. She had survived despite being declawed.

The first category I mention above declaw cats while the second category do not. A profound difference in attitude.

The woman concluded her story with these words:

"Poor kitty could barely walk! So, this is quite a success story, I named her Ladybug and she is so much happier now! You can tell she feels like someone’s pet again. She loves to cuddle and gives back so much love, she didn’t deserve to be abandoned and left for dead."

You'll agree that far too many people throw away their cat companion when it is convenient to do so; when the cat becomes a bother or a nuisance. When they get ill because they are old. This is not treating cats as sentience creatures but as 'objects' to possess to decorate the home.