From the archives: This story was last updated in March 2019.
Pet owners worldwide can understand the deep bond that can form between a master and their pet. Perhaps they too can understand the grief involved with the loss of a pet, if that has come to pass, and how that painful feeling can linger. For one man, he decided to handle his grief a bit differently.Steve Greig, an accountant from Colorado, felt at a loss after one of his dogs died.
“I was just so distraught about (that death),” Greig told The Dodo. “A month or two went by, and I still felt so horrible about it. I decided that the only way I would feel better was if something good happened. That probably wouldn’t have happened if he had not died.”
Greig approached an animal shelter and asked for the dogs nobody wanted.
“I grew up with a lot of pets,” Greig said. “Both my parents were animal lovers and they pretty much always let me have whatever I wanted as long as I could take care of it.”
“So (I adopted) a 12-year-old Chihuahua (named Eeyore) with a heart murmur and four bad knees, and I brought him home, and that was just the beginning of all the animals,” he said.
Now, he has eight senior dogs that no one else wanted, as well as his sister’s dog, and a roommate’s pooch, and although it is a fair bit of work to tend to their different diets and needs, he enjoys it.
“A normal day for me is getting up at 5 am in the morning and making breakfast for all of them, which, you know, there are 10 (dogs), and most of them have different diets.”
Other than making at least 10 breakfasts, Greig also looks after his senior canines by attending to their health problems. The accountant then goes to work and returns by the afternoon to provide lunch for the pack.
Greig has a pretty packed weekend too, as he is filled with grooming appointments for his pets.
Not only does he have a big family of old dogs, but add to that a pig named Bikini that thinks she’s a dog, he also shares with a menagerie of cats, chickens, ducks, pigeons, a rabbit, and a pond full of fish.
Greig truly has a special liking toward senior animals. “They’re just wiser animals,” he said. “You kind of know what you want out of life once you become a certain age. These dogs know who they are and it’s easy to develop a relationship with a person or pet who knows who they are.”
Keep your day job Greig; these unloved creatures need you to bring home the bacon ... all those food and vet bills!
