REAL PEOPLE/LAST CHANCE for Love
The Dogs That No One Wants ... but Him
After he lost his own elder pup, Steve Greig made room in his life—and his heart—for many more
Each member of Greig’s pack of puppers gets individual attention.
WOLFGANG WAS one of a kind. A little red miniature pinscher, he accompanied his owner, Steve Greig, on hikes and kayak trips, to weddings and birthday parties. For 12 years, the two were inseparable. And then in 2012, Wolfgang was killed by a car. “It just tore me apart,” says Greig, 61, a retired accountant. “I mourned for months.”
Trying to make sense of the loss, Greig went to a shelter and asked to adopt the oldest dog they had, the one most in danger of being put down. “If Wolfgang’s death meant that another dog would be allowed to live, maybe his loss would be a little easier to bear and his death would have meaning,” Greig explains. He took home a 12-year-old Chihuahua with a heart murmur and four bad knees. “On the ride home, Eeyore was sitting on my lap, looking out the window, his tail wagging a million miles an hour,” Greig recalls. “And just like that, the cloud lifted.”
The high was addictive, and Greig adopted more. He usually has about nine dogs, making sure to give each of them individual attention. If a dog dies, he adopts another.
Greig lived in Denver, but two years ago, he moved to Newark, Ohio, to be near friends, and bought a historical mansion that he’s renovating. “There’s room there for everybody,” he says.
Greig has coauthored a book called The One and Only Wolfgang: From Pet Rescue to One Big Happy Family, and his Instagram account has more than a million followers. He’s happy to share the joy of older dogs. “People write me all the time and tell me that after seeing my dogs, they decided to save a life,” he says. “That tells me I am doing the right thing.” —Beth Levine
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To watch a video of Greig with his family of senior canines, visit aarp.org/olddogrescue.