Old cat vaccination advice please

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Nobby was given to me. He's lovely and very perky even though he's 12.

He was an indoor cat but now he's with me goes into my secure garden. He never comes into direct contact with other animals but other cats definitely use the garden and probably other animals too.

And I walk in and out.

I've booked him in for a feline leukaemia jab next week. The vet hasn't recommended anything else. I checked on here for advice a while ago and was told he might need something against flu and hiv. Thanks to that person btw.

Is it okay for him to have that just the leukaemia jab?

Sorry if I sound feeble but I love him and I don't want to lose him

Thinking about it, I think it will be over £400 when it's all done. But the money is there, luckily, and he's worth it.

Of course he is, the wonderful boy. It made such a difference to Seniorboy's overall life - and virtually no difference to his ability to eat.

I have just a feeling, by the way, that most insurance policies don't cover for 'routine' things such as shots and checks - and dental work - although they require them to be undertaken so while I know that it's not directly relevant to your decision, it may well be that even if he'd had insurance, you'd still have had to shell out for dental work. (Happy to stand corrected on that one.)

Good luck to him and let us know how he gets on.

Sorry to keep rambling about this but I'm really glad I took him now and she flagged up his teeth.

For a few weeks he's been fussy with food. He really is the cheapest date - he eats Felix and Coshida and Go Cat. But he started to lick off the jelly or gravy and leave the chunks, which was very annoying. I thought he was being a prince but maybe it hurts to chew.

He's a good weight, both in my arms and on the scales - 4.4 kg - but he is a little bit bonier than when he first arrived - on the spine and on his hips - but I thought that was just his breed and age.

I brought him a doggy bag of rib eye steak from a restaurant on Monday which he loved but only when I cut it into tiny pieces. I also put in the fat separately but he ignored that, possibly because it was tougher.

So for the moment I've really mashed his food up and I'll order blood tests with a view to the dental work for when I do the next step of his vaccinations in three weeks.

You're not rambling - you've got a lot of time to make up taking on a mature Siamese as - your first cat?

He might just be being fussy but I'd try to fix any possible physical issues before you start hanging tough. (How's your willpower?) Once he's had his teeth sorted and had a clean bill of health, you can reassess the situation.

As a matter of interest, where does he sleep?

We had cats and dogs as family pets but he's the first animal I've ever owned outright. Apart from a gerbil, who was also a rescue and a former classroom pet.

Willpower? Not much. Nobby and I are doing a Mexican stand-off over food at the moment. Sometimes he wins, sometimes I do. He just ate some biscuits but has rejected his mashed-up wet food and totally ignored his plain yogurt which he usually loves. It's not off but wasn't entirely fresh. I'm going to eat it. Not from his bowl though.

Where does he sleep? He used to be banned from the bedroom because I wanted one room to be hair-free. But I gave in about six weeks ago because it was so cold. He sleeps quite happily under the covers with DH and me.

In the middle . He also braces his back against DH and pushes his legs out against me so we're both clinging on to the edges of the bed with Nobby luxuriating in the middle.

That's my boy! A sure sign he's bonded by the way - which actually makes training him much easier. (Siamese take Exclusion from The Presence very seriously and a bonded Siamese will soon adjust their behaviour to avoid that.)

I know that when Seniorboy came to live with me he had run wild for years - my Mum was given to saying No in a tone of voice which really said 'Who's Mummy's darling then?' - and he had her taped. (We had to have a real long talk about that when he came to me.) You may need to adjust those willpower levels, I'm afraid. They can be very strong-minded cats.

I'd still get his health confirmed before you start any real serious training but right now, remember to be consistent with discipline and routine. (Siamese love routine - very ritualistic cats.) He'll probably like more than couple of meals a day given his age, so I've give him 3 or 4 smallish meals of fresh food at the same time each day (they like their food to be fresh and nosh keeps pretty well in the fridge - or freezer if decanted) and take the stuff away after a short while if it's not eaten.

my Mum was given to saying No in a tone of voice which really said 'Who's Mummy's darling then?'

Nobby and Seniorboy are the same, as are our mums, it seems. I really disliked Nobby when she had him because he was a nasty little biter and used to bully his brother who was bigger but more submissive. His brother died a few years ago and I felt so sorry for him not being the favourite. But that's anthropromorphising. I'm sure they got on in their catty ways.

Nobby would do that thing where he'd insist on sitting on your lap then when you weren't expecting it, suddenly grab your hand in his teeth and disembowel your forearm with his back claws. You could never sit down or stand near a flat surface because Nobby was always swaying to leap on you, claws outstretched.

Nobby would groom his brother a lot, which my mum thought was sweet, but I thought was him asserting his authority over his brother. He'd use it to physically push his brother away if he grabbed the nice spot on my mum's lap first. Nobby would lick and lick and push and push until his brother wandered off and then he'd take over the spot.

My mum thought this was all so adorable. Perhaps, it was, if you lived with him all the time and saw his well hidden good side.

When she died I adopted him because no one else would put up with him. He was a really unlovable little bastard. Clean, but that's about the most you could say in his defence.

For about two months I absolutely hated him. I wasn't cruel. I'd feed him, water him, clean his litter tray, stroke him sometimes but otherwise avoided him and would push him off my lap.

Then it changed. I think you're right and I might have stumbled inadvertently onto Exclusion From The Presence that you say Siamese cats have.

He is an absolute joy. Everyone says it now. I cannot remember the last time he bit or scratched. He loves strangers, even when one jabbed him in the scruff of the neck yesterday.

Seniorboy used to bite my Mum. He doesn't now, of course - I don't permit biting. He is, however, still a little antisocial with non-family although less so than when he lived with her. The bad eyesight may be a contributory factor to his tendency to be private, though - I suspect it's been failing for years.

I got him because I had a vacancy at the time and no-one else wanted him. (And he wasn't expected to last more than a month or two.) I had a dog which he roundly ignored but thankfully no other cat at that time. (He hates other cats - really detests and despises them.)

You'll be fine. They don't mind discipline as long as it's consistent so that they have a chance to avoid the sin. Routine they adore. Just be firm with him.

Hope he does well at his next vetting - I'm guessing that he was OK today.

PS - the 'change' would likely have been you bonding with each other. It feels quite wonderful.