From Diane:

"Hi Everyone,

Puppies are growing fast! They are spending a little time outdoors (very little due to the heat), but have lots of space indoors as they have taken over the dog room----700 sq. ft of play space. I have been taking a few pictures, nothing spectacular as they are not very easy to catch being still unless they are sleeping. Every time I try to snap a shot they come running into my lap. Took me 2 days to get these! Tried to get at least one or two of each puppy, but green boy seemed especially photographic this week. Trust me, they are all very cute! Please excuse the mess as it is almost impossible to keep their area spotless.

Enjoy!

Diane"

From Diane:

“Hi Everyone,

So sorry for not the delay in sending new pictures.  The pups have moved to their new giant playpen (22×10) and have so much room now to run and play. Makes it quite a bit easier to get pictures too.  Some of these were taken last week, but most are recent, taken yesterday and today.  The one picture of the 2 puppies “spooning” are of the biggest male and smallest female—thought it a neat picture.  They are really good puppies, so cute and very affectionate, and most importantly not extremely vocal—–as long as their bellies are full .

Enjoy!
Diane”

I have finally started to make out travel plans to pick up our pup.  We are driving up the morning of Friday, August 13th, and heading straight to Diane’s house, which is just northwest of Tampa.  Since we have pick of litter for the males, we need to be the first ones there to pick our boy.  After picking him out, we plan to leave him with Diane for the weekend while we enjoy a weekend in Tampa.  Busch Gardens is definitely on the agenda, since I love roller coasters.  Sunday, August 15th, we will pick up our boy at Diane’s house and drive straight home!  How exciting!  We are counting the days!

The Cane Corso breed has made the news a couple of times recently! 

The AKC finally accepted the breed into its Working Group and because of this, it was featured on TodayShow.com.  To read the article in full, click here.

Also, the breed was highlighted in the AKC Gazette this month.  Our pup’s dad was chosen for the large intro headshot photo at the beginning of the article.  The other gray/blue dog in the article is Prince del Cerberus, who happens to great, great, great grandfather to our puppy!  To read the article in full, click here.

The pups are almost at the halfway point where they will be going home, so I have started to compile a checklist of everything we need.  We have also made it our mission to come up with a name for our pup that will be a traditional Italian name.  We have downloaded countless lists of Italian boy names.  We have busted out with the pens, highlighters and process of elimination tactics.  Picking a name will be no small chore.  This is not a task for the faint-hearted.  Meanwhile, Diane has sent us more photos – both group and individual shots!  The big guy with the dark blue ribbon keeps catching my eye, same with one in this batch of photos that seems to have lost his ribbon… 

From Diane:

“Hi Everyone,

Sorry I have not sent any pictures or updates lately, but things got a little bit hectic last week.  Alondra and the pups are doing really well.  They have outgrown the whelping box and were actually climbing out, so I have moved them to a double ex-pen in the middle of the house.  Here they have quite a bit more room to move around, are playing with each other and their toys, are exposed to the other dogs, hear lots of noises, and have been started on some paper training (no guarantees on that!). 

It seems that their “big” sister (my 15 week old puppy “Fin”, daughter of Saggio and Dolly) is very curious and loves to just sit and watch them.  She talks to them and gives them kisses thru the fencing—-really, really cute!

I started out with newspapers, but Alondra seems to have developed a knack for making little balls out of the sheets of paper so now I am putting down brown paper and it’s working out much better.  They are actually doing pretty well with using the paper instead of the blankets.  Big news is that they are eating out of puppy dishes and have wonderful appetites!

Since I had been helping Alondra with bottle feeding, with them eating on their own frees up about 6 hours a day for me.  BUT, now the clean-up gets to be more of a challenge!

Attached are some random pictures taken this week.  Hopefully life will stay in order and I will be able to send more pics very soon!

Enjoy!
Diane“

We are taking off on a family vacation, so we reached out to Diane to let her know we would be traveling with little access to email and phone service.

This was her response:

"All is well. Babies are growing very quickly and it's all we (myself and Alondra) can do to keep them fed and clean.

Took a few group shots today so you can see how big they are already. I did do individual pictures yesterday and will try to go thru them tonight and get them emailed out.

Hope you enjoy your vacation with the family!

Happy Fourth to you too!
Diane"

The girls: