I got back from another trip to Illinois recently, and of course, that means more photos of Coco, my parents’ dog.

During my trip, there were some thunderstorms. Coco doesn’t like thunderstorms, so she tries to hide when she hears thunder. But, she also tries to stay as close as possible to the nearest person. I was in the kitchen cooking when there was a thunderstorm, so Coco dragged a rag over to the corner of the kitchen and laid there, trying to squeeze herself into the crevice under the cabinets.

The following day while I was watching the family business, Coco and I went outside to go for a walk. Coco seemed to really enjoy it, so she led me further and further away, consequently making our return walk just as far. After returning, she was exhausted, but didn’t quite want to sleep yet… so she was dozing off with her head up.

This photo is from two days after the one immediately above; we went on another ungodly long walk that day, and this time, she decided to submit to the exhaustion and take a midday nap.

… and here’s just a random photo of Coco completely wrapped in a blanket.

Considering my adoration of dogs (and animals in general), it’s probably not a surprise that one of the best parts of coming back to Illinois is getting to see Coco, my parents’ Yorkshire terrier.

Coco enjoys sleeping in random places at random times, particularly in spots where she knows you’re going to want to sit at one point or another. My parents bought her a Serta bed (yes, Serta makes pet beds), but she avoids it, probably because she knows that no human would want to sit there, and she only sleeps where humans want to sit. I picked her up and plopped her down on the bed; she didn’t identify it as a bed, stiffened up, and stared at me in confusion.

Coco is also a particularly intelligent dog (as are most Yorkshire terriers – the entire breed is usually rated as having above average to high intellect). When I turn on the space heater, Coco can’t feel the full warmth of it because it’s angled slightly upward, so she pulls over a cushion and lays down on top of it to gain height advantage and stay warmer.

When there isn’t a handy space heater nearby, she digs herself into a hole of blankets.

Sometimes, staying too buried under a bunch of blankets makes her too warm. While she’s sleeping, she will suddenly wake up, start panting, and climb out of her hole. She’s usually still pretty sleepy at this point though; she forgot to pull her tongue all the way back in before beginning to doze off again, and I captured her microblep.

This was my first time visiting Illinois in a year, which meant it was the first time Ed (“Grainyrice”) saw Coco in a year as well (unless he has been visiting my parents on his own without me being there and I’m not aware of it). As you’d imagine, Coco was pretty excited to see Ed again; here are some photos of their reunion:

After Coco finished being happy, Ed and I decided to go get some food. In an epitome of a first-world problem, Ed wanted to go to both Culver’s and Buffalo Wild Wings, and he couldn’t decide which one. … So we went to both.

I go to Buffalo Wild Wings on occasion in Las Vegas, as there’s one relatively close to my home. I usually only ever go on Tuesdays and Thursdays when they have the wings promotions, so instead of getting even more wings (especially because it was neither a Tuesday nor a Thursday), I decided to try something new on the menu and got nachos with vegetables and pulled pork.

I was originally under the impression that it would be close to an appetizer, but it ended up being more food than Ed had with his wings. Considering I had eaten a Culver’s hamburger shortly prior to that, I ended up bringing like 80% of it back home to-go.

This is my first time seeing Coco since late November 2016, which is literally nine months ago. She came along with my parents to the airport when they came to pick me up from O’Hare, and she actually recognized me walking up to the car and literally leaped out of the car when I opened the door to get in.

If you can’t tell, yes, Coco is also a Yorkshire terrier, just like Mango. But, Coco is a lot older – she’s no longer a baby – so her hair has fully gone through the color-changing process, so she is tan and silver instead of black. But yes, when she was younger, she was indeed much darker.