Hello again - really glad it is all going well and the claw-clipping was a success. As far as the grooming goes, I rarely see my old girl groom these days. Maybe they just don't want to waste the energy! Luckily, her "boyfriend" (she is 19, he is just over a year!) likes to wash her! If your boy enjoys being brushed, I would just make sure you do that regularly. His coat is never going to be top-notch anyway, and brushing it should make sure there is a regular turnover of fur. He sounds pretty laid-back, so if you ARE worried, maybe he would let you bath him? The back of my mind says there may be something on the market like a wet-wipe for cats??? Might be worth investigating.

When I had an older cat in the past, she got to the point of only washing the easily accessible bits and leaving the rest. The vet said that, like humans, cats get stiffer and less flexible as they get older and can't bend and stretch themselves into the weird positions any more like they once could. We used to give her a helping hand and her coat stayed pretty good. She loved being brushed, cats do like to stay clean, so I reckon she appreciated our help in doing that.