Mateo is my buddy.  I have had him for several years now, and I can't imagine my life without him.

Mateo is a Bergenmasco, or Italian Sheep Dog.  They are extremely protective of their doman and make excellent guard dogs.  They are extremely attentive; if anything is out of the ordinary, Mateo will see to it that all is well; if not, he will bark and let me know that something is definitely amiss.  He doesn't miss a trick.

Mateo is black in color; his coat is rather shaggy in appearance, but even with the long fur, his coat requires little in the way of brushing.  Another plus is that he is perfect for people who have allergies: their coats don't shed like most dogs'.

The funniest thing about Mateo is that he thinks he is a lap dog.  He weighs over 60 pounds, so having him sit on my lap is rather uncomfortable at best.  It doesn't help that he is a "licker": he will lick my face at any given opportunity and he always has to be in the middle of everything I'm doing.

About a month ago, Mateo did bite a kid, but the kid asked for it: he was throwing dirt and sand at my dog, and even after I told him to quit, he continued to go about his task.  Well, Mateo got angry and so he bit the kid in the ankle.  He didn't hurt him, thank goodness, but he scared the kid halfway to death.  Then the kid's mother came roaring up to me like a tornado and proceeded to tell me that she was going to sue my ass.  I told her, "Look, lady, your boy started it; Mateo was only doing what he felt was right."  Well, she took me to court; the judge concluded that the kid was in the wrong, and the case was, thankfully, dropped.

Mateo did have to spend two weeks in quarentine, to make sure he didn't have rabies (he didn't; he gets his rabies shot every year), but not having him with me for that period of time was the longest moment of my life! I missed him terribly!  When I finally got to pick him up, you never saw a happier dog!!

Well, I hate to cut this short, but Mateo is begging for a walk; when he wants to do soemthing, he wants to do it now, NOT tomorrow, and definitely NOT yesterday!  I will write in here again with another update; stay tuned!