But many are also not completely abandoned.
They occupy a middle ground.
They belong to the street, the neighborhood and, in a loose sense, everyone around them.
This helps explain why the internet joke surrounding the disappointed cat worked on another level.
Viewers familiar with Turkey's cat culture could imagine the animal behaving not like a desperate stranger but like a local resident who expected the visitors to understand how things worked.
In the meme version of events, the tourists were guests.
The cat was the local.
And the local was unimpressed.
The Internet Gave the Cat a Personality
Social media excels at turning a single expression into a complete character.
A photograph of an animal looking sideways becomes "suspicious."
A dog staring at an empty bowl becomes "betrayed."
A cat sitting upright becomes "the manager."
Another cat glaring from a sofa becomes "your disappointed parent."
Once people agree on the joke, each new caption adds another layer of personality.
That is exactly what happened here.
The Turkish cat stopped being simply a cat sitting beside tourists.
Online, it became a character.
It was the disappointed local.
The ignored customer.
The offended host.
The restaurant critic.
The creature silently judging people who had failed an obvious social test.
Different users could project different stories onto the same face.
That flexibility is one reason reaction images spread so easily.
A good reaction image does not require people to know the original context.
The expression can be reused whenever someone wants to communicate disbelief, disappointment or quiet irritation.
The Turkish cat's face fit that format almost perfectly.
Why Cats Are Especially Good at Becoming Memes
Cats have occupied a special place in internet culture for decades.
Long before today's short-form video platforms, photographs of cats with humorous captions were among the web's most recognizable forms of entertainment.
There is something particularly effective about feline expressions.
Cats can appear dignified while doing ridiculous things.
They can look furious while sitting completely still.
They can seem judgmental simply because of the shape of their eyes or the angle of their ears.
They frequently behave with a combination of independence and curiosity that humans find easy to turn into stories.
Most importantly, cats rarely appear concerned about whether humans find them funny.
That apparent seriousness makes the humor stronger.
The Turkish street cat did not need to perform a trick.
It did not need to chase anything.
It did not need a costume.
It simply sat beside a meal and looked toward the humans.
The audience did the rest.
A Perfect Example of Anthropomorphism
The viral reaction also reveals something interesting about the way people connect with animals.
Humans are exceptionally good at constructing narratives from incomplete information.
We do it with each other constantly.
A raised eyebrow becomes skepticism.
A sigh becomes frustration.
A pause becomes uncertainty.
When animals make expressions that resemble those signals, humans often apply the same interpretations.
In the Turkish cat video, viewers saw a sequence:
Cat notices food.
Cat waits.
Humans continue eating.
Cat looks displeased.
Therefore, the cat must be disappointed.
It is a compelling story because every part appears to fit.