HURRICANE IRMA EVACUEES:
7 CANE CORSO PUPPIES FROM ST. MAARTEN

This page will follow a pseudo-blog format.  The most recent updates will appear at the top of the page and will continue down the page in a chronologically descending order.  Please keep in mind that Costa Bel Cane Corso did not breed and does not own these puppies.  We are simply aiding SXM Cane Corso with the care and placement of the litter due to their forced evacuation from St. Maarten pursuant to Hurricane Irma's devastation.  Thank you for your support!

Our puppy application is a crucial tool that helps us determine if one of these puppies is right for you.  All families must complete an application - NO EXCEPTIONS! 

The "Now Accepting Puppy Applications!" button below will open an Adobe PDF file in a separate window for you to print and complete in its entirety.  Puppy applications should be scanned in, reviewed to ensure legibility and returned to Costa Bel Cane Corso via our CONTACT US page.
10.05.2017...  Lots of things going on at Costa Bel today!  Yesterday, we were on a mission securing transport of dog food to Petra in St. Maarten.  Thanks to a very kind person in the Florida Cane Corso family, who wishes to remain unnamed, communications and paperwork with a shipping company were facilitated for us at a very reasonable cost.  Knowing we had a means of getting dog food to her, we bought six 40 pound bags of dog food, since we were limited to 250 pounds of cargo.  It will board a ship to St. Maarten on Friday right around the same time the puppies will land here in South Florida.  Thank you to Grif's Western in Davie for offering us a 10% discount on the purchase of this food.  Every little bit helps and this poor woman has 13 adult dogs to feed in St Maarten.

We stayed up late last night packaging the dog food in accordance to the instructions by the freight company and I drove the boxes to them this morning.  I filled out the appropriate paperwork and was told that the dog food would arrive in St. Maarten by Wednesday of next week.  To the right is a video of the boxes being taken to the cargo holding area.

We also started to receive lots of awesome packages for the care of the puppies!  People are so generous!  Thank you for showing these babies so much support!

By the time evening rolled around, the countdown to the arrival of the "SXM Sassy 7" to Camp Costa Bel had begun!  The puppy area was set up!  This is where our sweet Hurricane Irma evacuees will sleep, eat their meals and polish up their crate training.  In case anyone is wondering, SXM is the airport code for St. Maarten.  Below is a fun video of us setting up the puppy area.
10.04.2017...  Petra and I have been in constant communication, despite very intermittent service, planning for the arrival of these 7 angels on Friday, October 6th.  She has expressed to me that she is struggling to find food for her dogs so we are working on finding a way to get food down to St. Maarten.  In the meantime, THANK YOU to all who have helped out with supplies for the puppies.  They have their own list on Amazon (click here) and the biggest needs right now are dog food and crate beds.  The puppies will go through a 25lb bag of food in less than 2 days.  Our local mom+pop store, Natural K9 Supplies, has offered to hold the bags that are purchased for the puppies.

Petra has done her best to send me photos of the parents, so I have created a slide show below of all those photos.  There are a few puppy photos in there too.  Dad is black brindle and mom is formentino.  As we get everything set up here at Costa Bel, the excitement is growing to welcome these 7 evacuees into our home.
10.03.2017...  First of all, THANK YOU TO EVERYONE who has shown support.  The response for these puppies' well-being has been overwhelming.  The Cane Corso community is truly awesome.  I know many have reached out to me privately to send Costa Bel money to help with the puppies but we are simply not comfortable receiving money from anyone so that is not an option but THANK YOU.  I suspect the biggest expense will be food because I am hoping our vet will work with us, given the circumstances.  This is where we buy what they will be eating: https://www.naturalk9supplies.com/products/acana-heritage-free-run-poultry-4887.aspx.  The owner of Natural K9 Supplies - his name is Sal - is our friend and he can hold purchased bags at the store for us.  He also sells collars and chew toys...  As far as supplies, we have set up a list of what these sweet angels will need and we also included the food there but there is a huge price difference and we would rather see Sal get the business since he is a mom+pop store.  This is the Amazon list: http://a.co/3fwTE3h.  Aside from the items on the list, we are pretty well stocked here. THANK YOU SO MUCH to all willing to help.
10.02.2017...  Times of crisis bring strangers together. Our Cane Corso breed community is very small; one of our own needs help and I will be calling on all of you for some help. This Friday, a litter of 7 Cane Corso puppies is being shipped to us by Petra Voskuilen of SXM Cane Corso. She is a breeder in St. Maarten who has struggled to keep her puppies alive after Hurricane Irma tore through her island. She reached out to us yesterday, without even knowing us, for help. We all know how much we adore our puppies so imagine having to trust complete strangers with your babies, as she is doing with Greg and me, to ensure their survival. We have agreed to help Petra by caring for her puppies in our home, assisting with AKC registration, evaluating them, providing veterinary care, determining their value and finding buyers for these sweet evacuees. Even though Costa Bel did not breed these puppies and we do not own them, they will still be subject to our strict application process and sales contract. We intend to exercise the same care that we would with our own puppies. Greg and I promised Petra to do right by her and her puppies and we will do everything we can to ensure these puppies are placed in perfect homes.

We know very little about them – keep in mind that communication channels are sparse – but have listed below the facts we have pieced together:
  • Breeder: Petra Voskuilen, SXM Cane Corso
  • DOB: June 11, 2017
  • Docked + Cropped: Yes
  • Microchipped: Yes (ISO compliant)
  • Sire: Nitro Guardiana, Croatian import bred by Doktor Svjetlana
  • Dam: Imperia Rossi, Russian import bred by Anna Loginova
  • 4 males, 3 females
  • 3 fawn, 4 black brindle

The puppies will be seen by our vet upon their arrival in Miami to ensure they are healthy and ready to be sold. As soon as they come home to us, we will take photos and videos and share them with you. Thank you in advance for your support and for showing how amazing the Cane Corso community can be.