HAWK KENNELS Since 1976 Neapolitan Mastiffs a Specialty Pups, Studs, Training Civilian, Police, Military, Narcotics/Bomb Detection Dogs

Let me include this caveat emptor: that there are a range of mental and physical attributes with the Neo's genetic database as wide and varied as in any other breed of dog. Some Neos aren't worth spit, stupid, lazy, can barely get out of their own way, can't get into and out of a car by themselves, they're so clumsy. Some can jump over a car. Some are so smart it'll scare you. The intelligence in their expression is undeniable. The good features, intelligence, courage, loyalty, incorruptability, are based in genetics, and must be selectively bred for to maintain. This takes an experienced breeder. Bred haphazardly or randomly, Neos will quickly degenerate into something resembling a Pit Bull or a Cane Corso.

Neos were thought to be extinct for generations. But in 1942 they discovered a few small villages in Italy that were still breeding them. A gentleman named Pierre Scanzani (spelling?), an Italian painter, fell in love with the breed, and started collecting primitive looking specimens, to recreate the ancient Molossian look. The dogs who didn't look primitive enough to pass muster as the ancient look were called Cane Corso. Now, that's the rumor from Italy. Is it true? Who knows. Who cares? It's still a great story, and story is sometimes preferable to truth to many people. It's like religions. Are they true? They're true if you hold them to be true. People kill each other over religions every day. So, let's leave truth behind, and enjoy our legends, our myths, and our stories. And our Neapolitan Mastiffs. I'll go to my church, and you go to yours. (grins)

The background of this page is a clay relief pressed from a mold 2,000 years before Christ. It is a Sumerian Molossian bitch suckling her pups. That is older than the pyramids, folks. The dog looks remarkably similar to the Neo of today. Obviously the dog didn't spring full-blown into existence at the time of this pressing, so it is safe to assume that the dog is older than this. Common relics found in the Mesopotamian region date from as early as 3,000 bc. One exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a terra cotta statue of a Neo dating from the second millenium bc. How old is the Neo? No one knows. His origins are lost in the abyss of time, his original breeders long since slid into the dustbin of the ages.

e-mail address froggy@nwrain.com