My family had 4 cats when I was born, all had been found as stray kittens or literally come to the door and begged to get in (second story of an apartment building with lots of other choices of doors). We found the owner of one and they just said "keep him, we realised a while ago we shouldn't have gotten a pet in the first place".
Then when I was a teenager a cat came to our door just the same, during a huge storm, went directly into my room where I was sleeping and laid down basically on top of me and stayed there the whole night. I remember waking up thinking "who the fuck is this?".
We bonded immediately and he became mine more than ours. A few weeks after that we found the family he had come from and they also just told us to keep him because they had two 3-year-olds who weren't playing nicely with him and they saw that he had a better home with us.
He moved out with me when I got my own apartment and we were best friends till he passed about 10 years later (he was already 5 when he came to us). Haven't gotten a pet of any kind since then, he was the best cat and friend I've ever had/known. Still dream about him at least once a month and it's been 8 years since he passed.

I lost my orange boy in January and I'm still waiting for the cat distribution system to re-engage.

I don’t live in a safe neighbourhood but this post has convinced me to leave my front door open through the night.

This is EXACTLY how we got Bear and Todd! I think they even used a picture of Todd for the meme.

Proof:

Pretty much. That's how I have 9. Occasionally hungry cats come to my garden for food. One of my best buddies passed away last year, I had built a cat house for him from a thing I got online, and I kept it there for other animals to use when the Winters come.
Recently a neighbour's cat came to my garden, whilst they were out of the house, and she had an abscess on her face, so I was able to take her to the emergency vets and they sorted her out (was a Saturday).

I don't know if it's just me being high, but I think animals can sense some shit. Was at a park with a buddy last Summer and I was kneeling down to read something on a rock, and a squirrel comes to me and is like, doing those hand gestures like it's asking me for something. My mate gave him some BBQ Hula Hoops, and the little dude was ecstatic.
I've been carrying water with me ever since that day, like, it would be really cool if I feed an animal water on the random.

I've never had that happen (U.S.). I've either gone to the pound or accepted someone else's pet when they could no longer care for care for it (due to: illness/death/move requiring dubious 30 day animal quarantine).

I'm waiting for temperatures to drop for the feral cat to come by. Cornelius drops by when it gets cold out and makes himself at home. My cats have accepted him. It's been a few months and I hope he's doing well. His "owner" hadn't seen him in months last I checked in.

I live in the wrong neighborhood. I only have one cat that "wandered in" and it wasn't into my house but a former coworker's barn.

She went from skinny with a silent meow, to a big orange floof ball that will audibly meow at dinner time.

She was very affectionate from the start so not sure where she came from before that. She's chipped now though and shows no desire to go outside ever again.

I've had 3 that were acquired that way. One's mother moved into our garage and had kittens (we kept one), one literally pushed the screen out of my upstairs bedroom window while I was sleeping to come in (scared the crap out of me - to be fair, we had fed her earlier, so she had some reason to assume she could let herself in), and the most recent was a kitten who yowled at my wife from a bush outside of where she worked until she found where he was and took him home. Definitely qualifies as "I live here now" because he was silent and calm on the drive home.

My nan got all her cats this way. The last few were a trio of kittens she found huddled under the tree at the end of her garden during a storm. She did keep an eye out for the mother, but if she was around she never came back for them.

Most of them outlived her in the end, and my uncle ended up with them.

That's how we got multiple new cats, because the one that walked in had kittens

Now bring me food, im hungry.

I almost got a second cat this way. He was a super duper socialable and friendly cat... but I was fostering another cat who HATED other cats. I dont mean simple hissing and passive aggressive behavior... I mean she went completely apeshit and tried to kill him. Then she tried to kill me and was so berserk she just shat where she was standing...

That other cat was a bit of a neighborhood cat and was friendly with several people. I hope he was OK because... well, he did return during winter and it was freezing outside... but I couldn't let him in because my foster was still there...