COLUMBIA -- For the past several weeks, KRCG has been reporting on the Central Missouri Humane Society's progress in a national online competition to win a million dollar makeover.o

On Tuesday, the Humane Society found out they made it into the top ten. The animal-centric website ZooToo is putting on the contest.

But KRCG has discovered that the winner of last year's $1 million makeover is still waiting for the money.

A million bucks isn't what what it used to be. That's what the founder of St. Louis based Stray Rescue has come to believe.

"I thought it was our miracle,” said Stray Rescue founder Randy Grim.

But now Grim's saying, show me the money to Zoo Too. He says his shelter has only received $3,000 from the company's $1 million shelter makeover contest.

"I won a $1 million makeover, but then how come there's no money, and how come I have to beg everyone for everything?” said Grim. “I wouldn't need a contest to do that."

Grim says the shelter has used about $170,000 of its own money to start remodeling, and since he can't pay the bills anymore, his contractor has walked off the job.

Zoo Too's founder Richard Thompson says payments have been made to the shelter.

"I'm doing my best to resolve this,” said Richard Thompson, in a phone interview. “I'm prepared to resolve this, in a very meaningful way, but there's gotta be some communication because obviously this is about helping animals. And we wanna be as helpful as we can."

Local Humane Society officials say they're completely confident in the contest.

"We understand the magnitude of this process is not going to be fast or flawless,” said Patty Forister, CMHS executive director. “Our relationship with Richard Thompson's been great, ya know, the people involved in this contest are national organizations and national companies. They are highly reputable, so we feel very positive going forward and that everything will work out fine, especially if we win the makeover."

But back in St. Louis, Randy Grim's lost his confidence, which is why he's sitting in a lawyers office.

"Sitting here right now is probably one of the least happiest days of my life,” said Grim.

Even still, the CMHS hopes to finish top dog in the contest, with the understanding that they might have to jump through some hoops first.

"He's made this very clear that this is not a blank check for us,” said Forister. “It is about relationships with our community, about everybody chipping in, and he's gonna play a role in that, with the money and his resources, and so, he's made this very clear that this is a collaboration."

So far the CMHS has qualified for $20,000 in preliminary prize money. They say they haven't received any of that so far.

You can vote for in the Zoo Too contest from April 13 through the 19 by logging onto Zoo Too.

The winnner will be announced at the end of April.