Wow, you truly are an animal lover!
They were ‘accidental’ pets.
My dad had them up at the cabin and didn’t provide them a safe haven from coyotes, so, like most of the critters he tried to keep up there, they wandered down through the deer pasture and into my yard.
He kept trying to ‘take them back’ but they always returned so he gave up.
They were good watch dogs.
They’d see something going on, start to honk, the dogs would hear that and start to bark.
Nothing ever went on outside without me knowing.
:D