Dead squirrel eater and wet nose

Quick (gross) Marvin story:
Yesterday the boys and I started out on our morning walk when I saw our neighbor with the fenced yard outside. Since I had taken the day off of work I stopped and asked her if I could release the beagles in her yard to run around with her two black labs. There really wasn't much running around – more snouting the new turf and eating salad (grass).

I lost sight of Marvin for a good couple of minutes so we started to look around for him. There is a section of the yard that's overgrown with bushes and weeds and that's where we heard his jingling tags. No amount of calling would get him out so I ducked into the brush, dodging mosquitos as I went, to discover him chomping away on something dead. When we made eye contact he realized I meant business as I called him and he slowly made his way out to the yard still holding the dead thing. It was a decomposing squirrel – and it had to go. I carefully pried his jaw open without touching his prize and to the ground it fell. I had my neighbor hold his collar as I took a garbage bag and picked it up dog poop-style. Ewww eww ewww. As he was rather obsessed with the overgrown area after that and the dogs weren't really interacting with one another anyway, we left and took our walk.

Once home, Marvin scurried off to hide under their window seat. When he started to make a regurgitating sound I shuffled him outside in a hurry. He sat out on his tie out, not doing a thing, so I let him be for a bit. Ten minutes later I visited my boy and there he was, head hidden under our outdoor fireplace guarding his fine pile of regurgitated squirrel. Ugh. I was actually thrilled that he had done that and that the pile was rather huge because I felt comfortable letting him back in the house again and even more comfortable knowing that was no longer in his little body. So I got to pick up dead squirrel a second time in the same day. Dogs and their vices.

Quick (sweet) Diesel story:
Now that the weather has warmed up I'm wearing shorts on our dog walks. I've noticed since working with the boys to walk "close" that Diesel walks very close. He tucks himself so tightly to my left leg that I feel his body brush the side of my leg, and sometimes my heel bumps him and I feel bad. But the best part is, while wearing shorts, I also feel his lovely wet nose touch the side of my bare leg. He was walking especially nicely by my side at lunch today and the wet nose touched my leg many times. I smiled the entire walk.