My people call me Kai after a place they like in Hawaii. It’s called Kailua Kona. They say they’re going to live there one day. I hope I get to go. (Today I got my own Instagram account at Kai Weil if you want to watch me grow. It’s going to be good.)

I’ve lived with my new people for 8 days now. It’s quite different than my other family. For one thing, they don’t like it when I bite them. The weird thing is my other family loved that. As soon as our teeth started coming in, we celebrated by nipping each other’s ears and legs. It was great fun.  But when I nip at my new family members, they yell “OUCH!” really loud and stop playing with me. It’s confusing, but I think I get it. It’s because they don’t have hair like me except for the stuff that hangs down when they play with me. (They don’t like it when you bite that either. So many rules.)

One thing they have here at my new place that rocks: these little chewy nubbins they call Nylabones. They taste delicious. I can hold them between my paws and gnaw away. It feels so good on my teeth. Sometimes I miss the bone and get the stuff below it which is kind of fun to pull on because it tugs back. Then the people say, “NOT THE CARPET” and I look at them to understand because I want to understand. I want them to like me. I go back to my bone because they seem to like that.

“Goooood boy,” they say. Phew. Yes, bone. No, carpet. Check.

I live inside here. I like it because it’s cool and we have DogTV and toys and people to play with, but I get preoccupied and pee which they don’t like at all.  They yell, “NOT THE CARPET!” They really like the carpet. I hope they like me that much, too.

I’m trying to win them over by doing some things they like. I’m very clever so I’ve figured those out. They do so like it when I go to the place they call my “special spot” and they get REALLY excited when I run there and go on my own. But did I mention it’s really hot out there? Today is 112. (I know that because they keep saying it.) To cool off, I jump in my pool and grab my toy. If I bring it to them, they get really excited. They also really like it when I sit or run towards them with my whole butt wiggling.

Back to the list of “don’ts.”

• Don’t potty inside
• Don’t bite the people (as already mentioned, but it’s a biggy)
• Don’t eat the furniture, or the walls, or the carpet (any of the good stuff, really)
• Don’t go hide behind things where you can’t be seen (can’t a guy get a little privacy?)
• Don’t go in the mud
• Don’t dig big holes in the yard (this one’s a real drag, ’cause I love me some diggin’)
• Don’t yipe…for any reason really
  
• Don’t dig in the fire pit and make all the ash go up in a big cloud of gray until you look prematurely aged (That was crazy! I couldn’t see anything!)

This is just a starter list. More comes up and I’m trying to learn it all. But it’s tough to remember. I’m doing it, though, because I get perks like these.

• A family who loves me
• I get to meet new friends like these pretty ladies
• I get to swim in my pool, which I adore
• I get to go “training” and learn sit, stand, stack, leave it (not my fave), here and then they say, “Goooood boy.” (After I get to play with my cousins and bite which I do so enjoy.)
• Best of all, I get to make my family so happy and bring them joy.

Mom says I’m going to be a “therapy” dog. I don’t know what that means exactly, but I think it’s going to be fun. Mom says it’s perfect because my name means “restoration” and “recovery” in Hawaiian. It also means ocean and she says we get to go see that at a place called Dog Beach in Santa Cruz. She says I’m gonna love it there.

I can’t wait for all our adventures. I’m going to be the bestest boy. I’m so happy I’m home.