It's a Ruff Life at the New Van Saun Dog Park

John Fugazzie of River Edge will see his dream of having a County dog park at Van Saun Park become a reality as the dog park unofficially opens Friday at 10 a.m.

Fugazzie, the founder of Neighbors-helping-Neighbors, a job support and networking group, said that Friday is the 'soft' opening of the dog park. The official opening will be in a few weeks, although the date has not yet been confirmed.

Fugazzie put a great deal of effort into organizing support to bring a dog park to Van Saun so that residents from Paramus, River Edge, New Milford and Oradell can easily access it.

Knowing the size of the dog-owning population, Fugazzie was confident that he could draw a crowd to back the dog park. He also envisioned a place where dogs and their owners can meet to socialize.

"It's a dog owner's version of the downtown community," he said.

With the help of River Edge Mayor Sandy Moscaritolo, who went to the surrounding towns garnering support for the idea, and Councilwoman Kathleen Murphy, the Van Saun dog park is now complete.

Fugazzie said that the idea of a dog park is to provide a place for dogs to play without a leash and to socialize with other dogs. There are a few in the county already, in Ridgewood, as well as in Leonia, Lyndhurst and Woodcliff Lake.

Fugazzie is selling T-shirts for the official opening of the dog park. Oradell Animal Hospital paid for the cost of the shirts so that all proceeds can be donated to the Bergen County Animal Shelter. Click here to order a shirt.

Building upon his vision of establishing a dog park at Van Saun, Fugazzie is also concentrating on creating events to help educate everyone on dog ownership, rescues and shelters.

His newly created BergenDog.org, is a volunteer group organized to create fundraising events to help dog rescues and shelters in Bergen County, as well as to educate dog owners and share information to improve the experience of dog ownership.