Denver Man Honored by ASPCA for Rescuing Dozens of Senior Dogs

For elderly shelter dogs, being adopted by Steve Greig is basically like winning the lottery.

The retired accountant from Denver has spent the last fifteen years taking in the oldest, sickest and most unwanted dogs he can find. The animals live in his historic mansion in Ohio, where the pups roam freely alongside Greig’s cat, pig, turkeys, chickens, ducks and rabbits.

Greig, 61, tends to the animals’ every need for the rest of their lives, including medical care, as many of his dogs have health conditions that made them less desirable to other adopters. He documents their daily happenings on Instagram, amassing over 1.2 million followers.

“I want this part of their life to be the best part,” Greig says. “I’m the final stop. I don’t want them to ever wonder what’s going to happen next. It’s so hard on them being in shelters. I feel like the one thing I can give them is stability and love.”

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals recognized Greig for his work last week, honoring him with the ASPCA Citizen Hero Award.

Greig began rescuing pets after the death of his dog, Wolfgang, who was struck by a car. He and the twelve-year-old pup were “inseparable,” Greig says. The loss sent him into a dark place for several months until one day, looking for a silver lining, Greig went to a local shelter and asked to adopt the oldest dog they had. He ended up with a fourteen-year-old chihuahua with heart disease and four bad knees.

“It changed everything,” Greig recalls. “Leaving the adoption center with him on my lap, he’s looking out the window and his tail is wagging a million miles an hour. All of a sudden, Wolfgang getting killed felt lighter. Because this dog was going to get a life that he might not have gotten if that hadn’t happened.”

The feeling was addictive. Greig decided to adopt another dog. Then another. Then another.

Over the years, Greig has taken in between forty and fifty shelter dogs. He typically cares for nine dogs at a time, adopting a new pup whenever one passes away. He’s had rescues for as long as eight years and as short as six months.

Right now, his household includes nine dogs: Ortha, Allister, Sturgill, Turtle, Couscous, Harriet, Maytag, Fernando and Sue Ellen. He also has a cat, a pig, five chickens, two turkeys, three ducks and three rabbits. (The pig, Bikini, and one of the chickens, Betty, sleep inside the mansion along with the dogs.)

The dogs range from nine to seventeen years old. Three are blind, one is deaf and one has vestibular disease. The newest addition — a nine-year-old poodle named Ortha — was a breeding dog at a puppy mill. Sturgill, a German pinscher mix, was a bait dog and is covered in bite scars on his head and legs.

“Each one brings something new to my life that is very exciting,” Greig says. “A lot of these dogs have been through so much. If I had gone through something like that, I would hate all people. But they don’t. They love no matter what.”

As his Instagram following grew, rescue groups from across the country began contacting Greig, asking him to take in their elderly dogs. Today, most of his pups come from True & Faithful Pet Rescue in Florida, though some of his pets originate from Colorado, Ohio and even Puerto Rico.

When he lived in Denver, Greig partnered with the MaxFund animal shelter to help find homes for senior dogs, spending the day with the pets and posting them on Instagram. Greig says all of the dogs he posted were adopted, except for one: a pup named Kitty that struggled with incontinence. He ended up adopting Kitty himself.

“She was the best dog in the world,” Greig says. “And because I adopted Kitty, 100 percent of the dogs that I featured got adopted from that partnership.”

After living in downtown Denver for 35 years, Greig and his animals moved to Newark, Ohio, in August 2024. He’s working to build new partnerships with local shelters.

He hopes his Instagram and the ASPCA award will help inspire other people to adopt senior animals, as well.

Though it can be painful to lose the dogs when they die, Greig says he takes comfort in knowing they were happy in the end. He recalls his eighteen-year-old dog named Chalmer, who passed away last month after four years in his home.

“A lot of people would say that four years is not enough. But for him, it was a whole lifetime,” Greig says. “His life started when he finally got a home where he was safe and comfortable and loved. I’m sure that was the best part of his life.

“If you make it about them and not about yourself, not about your pain, it’s worth it every time.”