There is not one day that goes by where I don't see a cat. They wander the streets, live in homes, and jump out of garbage cans in the street. In recent years, it has become more common to have house pets, cats being one of the easier pets to care for (as opposed to dogs; there's not much open space for dogs to run and exercise). One may think that perhaps camels or sheep are a more common everyday occurance, and this may be true outside of the city of Amman, but in Amman it is in fact cats that are one of the most common animals.
A cat in Amman looks like any other cat - there's not necessarily anything that makes them different from other cats. The only differentiator is that cats in the street might be underfed (hence why they spend time in garbage cans looking for food).
If a cat jumps out of a garbage can, I definitely feel surprised and spooked. If the cat is an indoor cat or a friendly cat, I feel comforted and want to adopt it. There are actually many people in Amman who end up adopting cats off of the street.
