Passerby Brian Coleman makes friends with Theodore Nibblebottoms, a pet pig who escaped his pen and made it to the front yard of his owner’s home on Branch Avenue in Little Silver Sunday morning. (Reader photo. Click to enlarge.)
The kitchen at Lunch Break remains busy preparing grab ‘n go meals as well as meals for delivery to the homebound. (Photo courtesy of Lunch Break. Click to enlarge.)
With job and income losses in the COVID-10 crisis, food insecurity is spreading, and Red Bank-area charities are stepping up to help ensure no one goes hungry.
At Lunch Break in Red Bank, for example, volunteers have distributed 65 percent more meals and 56 percent more groceries since March 16 than in the comparable 2019 period, said executive director Gwen Love.
Here’s a starter list of charitable efforts to feed the hungry in Red Bank, with links to make monetary donations. This list will be updated periodically.
Staffers and volunteers at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Monmouth County unit in Red Bank drew an uplifting chalk mural on the pavement before handing out free meals to community members Wednesday evening.
Lunch Break executive director Gwen Love, left, with officials from the Monmouth County SPCA. (Photo courtesy of Monmouth County SPCA. Click to enlarge.)
Red Bank’s Lunch Break has teamed up with the Monmouth County SPCA to help feed the pets of local residents hard hit by the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A grant seeking $821,000 for improvements to Broad Street is among the nearly three dozen applications pending, according to a report. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Six months after hiring a professional contractor to seek out grant funds, the Red Bank council is hopeful that a cash pump has been primed.
Business Administrator Ziad Shehady told the council last week that while no grants have yet been secured under the contract with Millennium Strategies, there is now “several million dollars” worth of potential funding “in the pipeline.”
Whelped on Monmouth Street five years ago, Red Bank’s Dog Days of Summer returned for the first of two 2018 installments with a romp in Marine Park Monday night.
Oliver, the Shih Tzu companion of Councilwoman Linda Schwabenbauer, had free run of the room at a special meeting of the Red Bank council Monday night.
Getting a later start than in years past, the 2017 edition of he popular, canine-centric Dog Days of Summer returns to Red Bank this month.
Pets and their human companions are welcome at a new animal-friendly worship service launched by St. George’s-by-the-River in Rumson last month. The service is held on the second Saturday of each month at 5 p.m. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Mass celebrants weren’t all equally attentive to Reverend Ophelia Laughlin at a pets-welcome worship at St. George’s-by-the-River in Rumson Saturday. About two dozen dogs, and a hamster named Hamstie, at right, attended the new regular service, which the church plans to repeat on the second Saturday of each month at 5 p.m. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Reverend Ophelia Laughlin blesses a dog at St. George’s-by-the-River’s annual St. Francis Day event last October. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Vatican may be fuzzy on whether animals get into heaven, but an Episcopal church in Rumson says they’re certainly welcome at services.
St. George’s-by-the-River will start offering a monthly worship next month at which all pets are welcome, associate pastor Reverend Jeff Roy tells redbankgreen.
Fifty-five dogs, a cat and a hamster sat obediently through a brief service at St. George’s-by-the-River Episcopal Church in Rumson before individual blessings by Reverend Ophelia Laughlin Sunday. Afterward, they were rewarded with biscuits, some in the shape of a cross.
Middletown officials have now confirmed eight cases of rabies in wild animals this year.
The latest case followed a report by a resident in the area of Walnut Avenue between Pine Street and Chestnut Street who saw a raccoon acting sickly in the backyard.
Middletown officials are warning residents to be cautious about sickly wildlife after five confirmed cases of rabid raccoons over the past five weeks.
According to an alert issued by the township health department Wednesday morning, the latest case involved a raccoon that was trapped after a homeowner in the area of Red Hill Road and Dwight Road notified them that the animal was acting sickly in the back yard.
The animal was trapped and euthanized, and a laboratory test confirmed the presence of rabies, the announcement said.
Dozens of dogs and their human pals turned out on a pleasant summer evening Tuesday for the first edition of Red Bank’s Dog Days, and redbankgreen was there to catch the wags, smiles and occasional slobbers. We’ve got lots more photos after the “read more.”
The canine meet-and-greet, held on a closed-to-traffic stretch of Monmouth Street, is scheduled to repeat on the last Tuesday night of August, September and October. (Click to enlarge)
Red Bank rolls out the red carpet for man’s best friend Tuesday night with the first in the series of three planned ‘Dog Days‘ festivals. Monmouth Street between Broad Street and Drummond Place will be closed to traffic from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. as dozens of animal-products vendors set up for an expected turnout of several hundred canines and their homo sapiens. All dogs must be on non-extendable leashes, the borough says. The event, whelped by Mayor Pasquale Menna, is scheduled to recur on the last Tuesday nights of August, September and October. (Click to enlarge)
Monmouth Street between Broad Street and Drummond Place will be closed to automobile traffic one night a month from July through October for ‘Dog Days of Summer.’ (Click to enlarge)
A stretch of Red Bank’s Monmouth Street will become a pedestrian mall for four-legged visitors and their leash-holders on select nights starting in July, Mayor Pasquale Menna announced Wednesday night.
Following through on plans hinted at last month, Menna said an event dubbed ‘Dog Days of Summer’ would begin Tuesday, July 30 and repeat on the final Tuesday nights of August, September and October, concluding with a Halloween party of sorts for domesticated critters.
“This is a special themed event for pets that includes humans,” said Menna, owner of an 11-year-old white Labrador retriever named Bella.
Dogs at last month’s Red Bank Street Fair. Mayor Pasquale Menna says he’s working on a recurring dog-friendly event for this summer. (Click to enlarge)
By WIL FULTON
Red Banks elected officials had canines on the brain Wednesday night, as dog-related issues came up several times during the course of the bimonthly council meeting.
Mayor Pasquale Menna said that he and Councilwoman Sharon Lee had recently attended a meeting at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital to plan an event he referred to as the Dog Days of Summer in Red Bank, a creative endeavor looking to pair downtown nightlife and dog-friendly activities.
I consider it a very cool, progressive idea, based somewhat off the European model of including pets in life, Menna said.
A bunny named Fuzz gets an ecclesiastical embrace from Reverend William Noble during a blessing of the animals ceremony at Red Bank’s Trinity Episcopal Church Saturday. About a dozen dogs and their owners joined Fuzz at the event, which commemorated the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. (Click to enlarge)
Butt-sniffing and friendly licking: all the cool pups are doing it. (Video by Stacie Fanelli. Click to enlarge.)
By STACIE FANELLI
Reservations for the ritziest, most exclusive party in Little Silver fill up quickly at the Dog Spaw. Catered with the finest selection of liver biscuits and grain-free kibble, Yappy Hour regularly draws about 20 local puppies and small-breed dogs.
The grooming, dog-walking, pet-sitting and canine holistic health food store had also been known by the name Paw Palace before it relocated from Red Bank last month. The move sent its boutique-style leashes, collars and fashion apparel to the Internet so the shop could focus on patrons’ nutrition and glamour.
Nicole Stover, left, and her mother, Dawn, make their case to the borough council to keep six ducks as pets. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
The borough council in Fair Haven is faced with a difficult and unusual decision.
On Monday night, the governing body heard from Nicole and Dawn Stover, who for the last six months have raised six ducks on their South Woodland Drive property to the chagrin of their neighbors, who have health concerns and complain that the noise from the ducks is irritating.
If the council allows the Stovers to keep the ducks, it will upset the neighbors. If it denies the family’s request, then it will have broken the heart of 12-year-old Nicole, who’s raised the ducks she’s named them Jeffrey, Delilah, Daisy, Lucifer, Blue and Genie and says they’re “pretty much like my children.”
This is a touchy subject, especially in Fair Haven, where disruptions to the status quo tend to spin the populace into a tizzy.
Stella, a golden retriever “from New Hampshire,” her owner notes, rests her chin on a snowbank outside the Starbucks on Broad Street in Red Bank Thursday morning. (Click to enlarge)
Among those looking for homes are, from left, Olivia, Dell and Java. (Click to enlarge)
They’re rescued from “high-kill” animal shelters and placed with foster families until permanent homes can be found.
They’re the dogs, cats, puppies and kittens rescued by Mutts-N-More, an organization that has no physical facilities but relies on a network of volunteers to house animals.
