You feel the responsibility of good cat caretaking
The better a cat owner you are the more intensely you feel the responsibility of cat caretaking. It works in the other direction as well. The less concerned a cat owner is about her cat the less responsibility there is.
For a good cat caretaker, the feeling of being responsible for the safety and welfare of your cat can be intense.
In fact a measure of the quality of “cat ownership” could be how intensely the person feels towards discharging their responsibilities. The level of concern comes from an empathy with your cat’s predicament and emotions together with knowledge.
Casualness indicates poor cat caretaking. Concern as demonstrated in what a person actually does rather says is a measure of the quality of cat ownership.
Failing to take on the responsibilities of cat ownership leads to failing to neuter your cat and to let her/him breed and a reluctance to take your cat to the vet if required. These are just two examples.
A good person can be a bad cat caretaker because of a lack of knowledge. The more you understand cats and the dangers the more aware a cat caretaker is. Knowledge brings awareness which in turn brings greater responsibilities.
It is the old adage: ignorance is bliss. If a cat owner is unaware of what is going on in terms of cat welfare generally, he/she does not feel the weight of responsibility. The truth is a lot of cat owners are, to varying degrees, ignorant about cat welfare in all its facets.
People like Dee and Ruth have a high level of intensity when it comes to cat welfare. This comes from knowledge combined with concern.
For the cat owner sleep walking through their role, cat caretaking is easy. The less easy it is to look after a cat to high standard, the more concerned and aware you must be.
All cat owners should feel the responsibilities of caring for their cat. It has a similar degree of importance to looking after another person.