By Farah H.

Old dogs for adoption? A man from Colorado just can’t stop himself from doing this one thing – giving senior dogs a forever home.

Steve Greig currently has eight senior dogs, four chickens, two ducks, a rabbit, and a pig. With all these animals as his co-residents, his house is full, and so is his heart.

It all began when Steve lost one of his dogs, Wolfgang.

“I was just so in love with this dog, we did everything together,” he told Inside Edition. “He died, and he died too soon. I was distraught over it. I couldn’t make it go away, so I decided if something good came out of his death, I could feel better about it.”

He thought of going into the pound and decided that he would adopt the oldest and least adoptable dog that was there. Fostering a dog at an age that Wolfgang never reached was his way of honoring his late best friend’s memory.

Eeyore (left)

That day, he took home Eeyore the Chihuahua, who was 12 years old at the time. He had four bad knees and a heart murmur. After officially becoming this dog’s new parent, Steve says that he “felt better immediately”.

“It felt like Wolfgang died, and this guy got to live,” he added.

He found the other dogs through coincidence, while some he intentionally adopted after seeing their picture online. The rest came from his friends who couldn’t take care of their dogs anymore.

With Eeyore are the rest of his adopted pooches. There’s Josh, a Rat Terrier; Waylon, a Cocker Spaniel; Loretta, a Terrier mix; Edna, a Bichon Frise; Engelbert, another Chihuahua; and Enoch, an Irish Wolfhound.

Since he had all these dogs, Steve says that he’s had to adjust the dog door three times. That’s because of his recent adopted Bikini, an indoor-outdoor pig who he found in the back of someone’s pickup truck.

“For landlord reasons, he couldn’t keep her anymore. I’d always kind of wanted a pig.She lives with dogs, uses a dog door. [I thought] I’m never going to have a better chance to have a pig. I fell in love with her immediately.”

Steve grew up with a lot of animals as his parents were also huge animal lovers. He carried it with him through adulthood, where he always had three or four dogs in his house.

Aside from the senior dogs, Steve also owns farm animals. There’s Oprah the chicken and her best friend Stewart the rabbit. They both live in the chicken coop, along with another hen and two roosters, who Steve thought were hens that’s why he named them Laverne and Shirley.

“I went to get baby chicks [for] eggs, but they both turned into roosters. I didn’t want to give them up. I knew they’d be killed,” he said.

Living in his front yard are two ducks named Harold and Sally.

Though he loves all of his animals, he says that senior dogs occupy a special place in his heart.

“They’re just wiser animals,” Steve told The Dodo. “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.”

Aside from the fun he gets from taking care of his multi-species family, Steve finds what he does incredibly rewarding.

“They just make it feel like home. It’s just fulfilling knowing that these guys are happy and loved and well-taken care of. It makes my days worthwhile,” he said.

Animals just make everything better, don’t they?

Source: mypositiveoutlooks.com