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Then he found Greg McAboy.

“When I met him, we played around, and I was like, ‘OK, he likes me.’ And I liked him,� said McAboy, a 54-year-old middle school classroom aide from Ballwin. “That’s how we found each other.�

In early December, the nonprofit Animal Protective Association of Missouri took over operations of the long-troubled county animal shelter off North Lindbergh Boulevard. The facility was overcrowded, understaffed and filthy. But over the past month, the APA has cleaned, painted, rebooted operations — and boosted pet adoptions more than three-fold, to 234 over the past two months from 70 in same period last year.

It appears to be a wholesale transformation.

The county’s shelter had long been troubled by overpopulation, understaffing and lawsuits.

In 2019, County Council members ordered an audit of shelter operations. It revealed the shelter had fudged kill rates, kept animals longer than necessary and couldn’t control infectious disease because of overcrowding. Following the audit’s findings, the public health department floated a plan to hand operations over to a nonprofit.

A former manager sued the county in 2021, alleging it fired her in part for opposing the plan. Amanda Zatorksi, who goes by the name Mandy Ryan, claimed an animal rescue group representative told her the county was “improperly allowing certain preferred potential bidders� to influence the county’s process for choosing a nonprofit. Ryan raised concerns to her supervisor but was later fired. That lawsuit is ongoing.

The shelter also faced turmoil as it transferred management to the APA last fall. Public health staff discovered a cockroach infestation in a storage area and destroyed thousands of documents in an attempt to prevent the infestation from spreading. But staffers didn’t seek the proper permission to destroy records, and government-transparency attorney Mark Pedroli later claimed the documents were relevant to multiple lawsuits he has filed against the county, including Zatorski’s.

Last summer, the health department announced a plan to euthanize more dogs. Dogs labeled aggressive had been warehoused for months, leaving the shelter full and animal control officers unable to bring in strays unless they posed a safety problem.

After it took over operations, the APA had to euthanize a number of dogs that had been warehoused.

“We did do an assessment on every pet to make sure they were compatible with the community,� said Sarah Javier, CEO of the APA. “We’re really glad that a number of pets were able to be placed into homes. However, there were pets that we knew were not a good fit.�

The number of dogs euthanized for behavior issues wasn’t immediately available.

The county’s public health department will still manage animal control, which brings in strays and dogs that have bitten someone. The number of animals brought into the shelter, either by animal control or members of the community, has more than doubled since the APA took over compared with the previous monthly average.

“This is one area the county struggled with,� said Dr. Kanika Cunningham, the county’s public health director. “It was time for us to go out and get a contractor. This allows us to be able to focus on what we’re great at and allow our community providers to give great care to the animals.�

None of that matters to Sterling, who has found a home.

McAboy acknowledged Sterling has a lot of learning to do. He called it a “love-hate� relationship, at times.

But McAboy says they’re learning together.

“Slowly, we’re making our way there,� he said.