My new cat shows signs of being abused in the past.

[Liberal Veteran]

Poor baby. I am having a heck of a time getting him to realize that I am not going to hurt him.

He's coming around really slow, but I can see he really wants to believe that he's in a good place.

Any tips would be great.

[flvegan]

1. Aw! All I can suggest

1. Extra attention;

2. When you move in for the petting be sure to be packing treats. Petting/treat association is always good.

[Perseid]

2. I've taken care of literally hundreds of cats over the years, and

they all have their own personalities to begin with, shaped by whatever environment they find themselves in.

I have found that a hesitant and "scared" cat generally is that way for many years unless treated as a member of the family, given access to the house and can sleep on one of the beds, and even then, it takes at least a couple of years to earn trust.

Once you do earn that trust, however, it will provide you with a long and loving relationship with a creature who will not only be there for you, but will tell others that you can be trusted. It's a beautiful thing.

That may not make sense to some, but I've been there/done that/lived it/believe it.

[fizzgig]

3. move slowly around him and keep your voice down.

and keep gently talking to him. when took in a stray male many years ago, it was a few years before he'd even come out of the kitchen (he was more outside than in for the first few years). one thing that i found worked with him was to sit on the kitchen floor and let him come to me. get down on his level and let him come to you, but always keep your attention on him when you're doing so or whenever you are petting him until he becomes more comfortable. and it is going to take some time before he feels comfortable and fully trusts you.

good luck and thank you for taking him in.

[Infomaniac]

4. Patience

One of ours is extremely wary. I would say semi-feral. She learned a signal to come for petting if she wanted it. It's a loosely cupped hand and she rubs her head against my hand when she wants attention. She loves the brush and games. I throw fake mice and she brings them back. She's the only cat I've ever had that will fetch. She's 2 1/2 now. We got her when she was 8 weeks old. It took about a year to get her into a spot where she would trust us.

[regnaD kciN]

5. I'm sorry to hear that...Achilles seems like such a beautiful cat...

Some cats are just skittish (or, as someone put it, semi-feral). It may have little to do with being abused -- more likely, it's that he grew up for the first few months/years without enough human interaction.

We have three brothers from the same litter (from a house down the street where they put out food for the cats but paid them little care otherwise). Two of them are quite gregarious, but the third is as I described above. For many years, he would pay attention to my wife, but run away and hide when I was around. Over the past few years, though, something odd has happened -- while he will still tends to avoid me in most places of the house, when I'm lying on the bed, he'll jump up to visit, purr, stretch out next to me, and give my hand a thorough washing. I don't know why he came around (to even that extent) after all these years, but I guess the key was not to force my attention on him, and let him approach me when he felt safe. Strangely enough, a new nickname seemed to do the trick, as well; his real name is Simon, but my wife started calling him Cub (as in "tiger cub") a few years ago and, since he seemed to respond to the name better than Simon, I started calling him that most of the time. Maybe he doesn't like "Achilles"...?