First, I was with Ami and Zeus practically the whole day, since their little boy was sick. Ami let me cut away a couple tangles from between his back legs, which is an area he's very sensitive about!
This will make desensitizing him to brushing this area much easier. He's happy to have it pet (his favorite place to be scritched is on his knees/the inside of his back legs) but the brush catches o his fur a bit, and with the tangles there he was not a very happy camper. To be clear, these tangles were not pulling on his skin when he walked or moved; if they were, I would have had someone help me remove them, or recommend his family to send him to the groomers, or made them my number one priority in training. They're just a bit inconvenient for full grooming. 
And as for the second, well...Onyx let me touch his claws! I've been working with him on letting me touch his paws, but today I was spending a couple minutes petting him and decided to see what would happen...he let me touch both of his front paws, no problem, so after a bit more of a massage/cuddle, I touched each of the claws on his closest foot, and he didn't even twitch! I didn't push my luck further, but spent a couple minutes more cuddling with him, and was just very very happy!
Also, Onyx continues to care less and less about Marble's presence. He let her sniff his ears and even his paws (which he used to be snarly about!) with no reaction.
And Marble's quite good too...she came away from him when we called her, and left him alone after that. Just a general good day for the dogs I know!Not doggy related, but good nonetheless: I convinced my parents to switch Emerald, the upstairs cat, to a better food, as she used to vomit a lot and had a very stinky litterbox, which sits right outside my parents' door.
This was helpful in convincing them that it was worth a try. Two weeks (I think) into the switch, Emmy's on 50/50 Taste of the Wild and old food, and she is very different, in a good way! Much less stinky, hasn't (knock on wood!) thrown up in at least a week, and...well, I got her a scratching post/perch over the summer. She loves sitting on it and hiding in the cave at the bottom, but there was a toy on it that she completely ignored. A couple of days ago I walked in and she had not only played with the toy, but pulled it off the string at torn it up! She's not normally a very playful cat, but I'm hoping it's because of her food. 
