Good morning, Okinawa!

We were on Okinawa for less than a week and my mom decided we needed to get out of the hotel room to explore.  She took me to the beach!  I had so much fun!

Soon after that, we found the greatest place to live.  Yes, I said live.  We would be there for more than a year.  Thank goodness I got all those shots and that extra microchip.  I would hate to be away from my mom for that long.  I found my favorite spot on our first day at home. 

I'm a pretty happy guy.  I wasn't sure about this trip, but we live near the ocean and some castle ruins that we walk to a couple times a week.  

My village has all kinds of flowers and yummy smelling vegetables that we walk by when we go on our walks.

So far, this trip is great and I can't wait to show you my other on-island adventures.  Stay tuned!

The longest and scariest adventure of them all

We left South Dakota and went to California to visit my Auntie Lori, but we didn't stay long.  Before you know it, we went to the airport to get on a plane.  And then another one in Seattle.  I had to stay in my crate for a while to Seattle and it was nice to get a break, but the plane ride from Seattle to Japan took forever.  It was so cold and dark on the plane and I was so hungry and thirsty.  But I slept as much as I could and early in the morning, I finally got to go outside and go potty.  Whew!  What a relief!

And then, just as I thought the trip was almost over, I had to get back in my crate and get back in the cold, dark airplane.  We had two more plane rides left from Tokyo to Iwakuni and then on to Okinawa!  Why were we going so far away?  Please, give me back my car rides!  I'll take those any day over these long plane rides.

San Francisco to Seattle to Tokyo to Iwakuni to Okinawa: Courtesy Google Maps

Finally, we arrived.  It was dark and cold, but we got to our room quickly and my mom took me for a long walk.  I really needed it since I was cooped up in my crate for most of the last 24 hours!  

What a day! I can't wait to see what this place looks like in the daylight!

We made it to South Dakota! Yaye!

We finally made it to South Dakota to visit my Gramma and we stayed a while.  It was cold and snowy!  I've never seen snow before!  My Gramma videotaped me running around in the snow!  It was so much fun!!!!  I wish I could play in the snow forever!  

Before I knew it, we were on the road to Gramma's house

We were only in Texas for a few more months before we were on our way to Okinawa.  But first, we were going to drive home to visit my Gramma and my Aunt Kama.  And after that, we were going to California to visit my Aunt Lori.  The bad part is that we were driving.

We left kinda late in the day and Texas is a big state so it took forever to get through.  And as bad luck would have it, my mom hit a deer before we actually made it out of the state.  I was sleeping in the back seat, wedged comfortably in between a suitcase and the pinata when it happened and it jolted me awake. All I saw was dust clouds and my mom shaking.  She was really scared and decided to get a hotel room for the night.  Luckily, the car wasn't damaged.

We're going where?

My mom came home from work one day and said I needed to get ready to go on a big trip soon.  She said that she already made me an appointment to go see the doctor.  The doctor? Why would I need to see the doctor to go on a trip?  I didn’t understand what was going on, but soon after, there I was, standing in the doctor’s office.

When I was a baby, I had to get all these shots to stay healthy and the people on the farm put something called a microchip just underneath the fur on my back.  If I ever get lost, the microchip helps my mom find me.  But there I was, in the doctor's office, getting another microchip and more shots!  Not just that, but I had to go back to the doctor two more times to get more tests and more shots.  It wasn't fair!  

But my mom said the place we were going had strict rules on healthy dogs and I didn't really have a choice.  It was either not get the shots and not go with my mom or get the shots and be with my mom.  I can't leave my mom!  What would she do without me?  Who would she play with?

So, I got the shots and all the tests, but I was not happy.  This place called Okinawa better be worth it.

A long road for Justice

One day, we went on a road trip to pick up my cousin Justice so she could spend the week with us.  I was in the car forever!  

I'm beginning to learn that I'm not a huge fan of long car rides.  I can't run or play or chew on anything.  Boring, boring, boring...yawn.  I just have to sit there.  But once we came home with Justice, it was way more fun!

I'm growing a beard?

I'm growing up so fast and growing a beard!  My mom started calling me "fur face." My mom didn't know I was going to grow a beard when she named me Phineas, but she says it soooo fits my name and that I looked like a little Irishman.

She says my name came in two parts.  She wanted part of my name to describe how smart I was, so she chose Phineas and calls me Phin for short.  You can click on my name to find out why Phineas means "smart."  She also wanted a name to describe how energetic I am. That's where Amplifier came from.

Dog days of summer

My first summer in San Antonio was ruff!  The hot sun made me thirsty and tired and drool everywhere.  The sizzling sidewalk scorched my feet.  I had to stop and rest every few minutes and lay my belly down in the cool, shaded, green grass.  The best part was that sometimes, the ground would still be wet and muddy and my mom would let me play in it to cool off.  

On the other hand, when we got back home, she made me take a bath -- not such an amazing adventure....

And then I became a scholar!

My mom had other plans for me besides sleepovers at Aunt Shelly’s house.  She made me go to school!  We went once a week on the weekends for two hours.  

School was pretty great!  I got treats for everything!  I got to play with my classmates!  I got to walk around the place where my mom buys my food and sniff all the flavors and sample other treats!  

I just wanted to relax and play with my toys when we got home, but the teacher gave us so much homework.  It was hard work, but it was worth going every week. 

My first adventure at Aunt Shelly's!

I barely lived with my new mom for one week in human time when my mom took me on my first adventure.  We drove over to my Aunt Shelly’s house all the way across town.  Aunt Shelly’s house was amazing!  I liked my mom’s house, but we had to climb all these stairs to get to it, like that story of that guy Jack and that really tall beanstalk.  I was so little, I could barely do it.  It was so hard! My mom had to carry me up and down those stairs a lot, especially when I had to go potty because she didn’t want me to do it in the house.

Shelly’s house though didn’t have ANY stairs.  I could just walk out the door and I didn’t even need that annoying leash my mom put on me.  Shelly had the biggest yard I have ever seen with the tallest fence -- for potty privacy, of course.  Potty privacy can make a big difference when you’re still learning.  

It wasn’t just Shelly’s house I loved though.  I loved Aunt Shelly too!  I first met her when my mom came to play with me on the farm.   She was the sweetest Auntie I could ever have.

So when my mom left me there for a few days, I was a little confused, but Shelly took good care of me.  She gave me lots of hugs, treats, and love and helped me practice my potty routine.  She took me to work with her and let me play on her desk.  She even let me play in the yard without my leash on -- shhhhh....don’t tell my mom. 

When my mom came back, I was happy to see her, but I had a great time at Shelly’s house and hoped I could sleep over again sometime.

I missed my family

I liked my new mom and my new house, but I missed my doggie mom and dad and all my brothers and sisters so much, I cried a lot.  The night time was really scary for me because it was so quiet.  I mean, when you’re used to snuggling up against your mom with your brothers and sisters crawling all over your face so they can snuggle too, you kind of miss it.  

I thought maybe my mom would let me sleep in her bed and snuggle with her, but she didn’t, so I cried even harder.  I think I even heard her giggle at me because she said I cried like a bird warbling.  

She tried so many things to get me to stop crying, but I was so lonely and upset!  She finally moved my bed where I could see her if I woke up in the middle of the night scared and that helped a lot.  I just needed to know I wasn’t all by myself and that my mom was still there.  Then everything was OK. 

Phineas safe and sound and fast asleep.

Once upon a time...

Hi! My name is Phineas Amplifier and this is my new doggie blog!  If you want to, you can call me Phin.

I've always wanted to share my adventures with others and I thought starting this blog was a great way to do it.  Any good adventure story never starts in the middle, so I'll start from the very beginning.  That way, you can learn a little bit about who I am and where I've been.  Should we get started?

I was born in the big state of Texas in a little town called Rosanky.  That's me up front and in the basket with me are all my brothers and sisters: Jack, Dulce, Burt, Izzy, and Karina's the one who's yawning.  She's always so bored during family pictures.

From left to right: Jack, Dulce, Burt, Phineas, Izzy & Karina

My doggie mom and dad are still in Rosanky on the farm where we were born, but I met my human mom when I was very little.  She came out to Rosanky one day to play with us and the next thing you know, I was in the car going all the way to San Antonio!  It felt like we were in the car forever!

Rosanky to San Antonio, Texas: Courtesy of Google Maps

But we finally made it.  Little did I know that adventure would be one of the shortest adventures I would ever go on.  I had no idea just how far I would go with my new mom and how soon I would go on my very first adventure!  I barely had a chance to get settled in my new home!

Tune in next time to see where I went for my first adventure!