Hello everyone!
I have a rescue cat that I've been assured hasn't been abused, but his behavior tells me otherwise. His name is Spot and he's half-siamese, though he only seems to have picked up the talkiness and length of the breed.
He was about three or four when I got him and the lady who was fostering him said that he'd been adopted and brought back FOUR TIMES already! First when he was a kitten, they thought he was a girl and named him Glenda. When the people who had him took him to the vet, they found out he was a boy. They neutered him and took him back to the foster lady, saying they'd really rather have a girl cat.
The second time he was adopted by a woman, but her mother became very ill and she couldn't care for him, so she brought him back after a few months.
The third time he was adopted when a woman and her husband came to adopt a cat that looked like her recently deceased cat. The husband was completely in love with Spot, but when the wife realized that just because her new cat LOOKED like her old cat, it didn't mean he WAS her old cat, she took them both back.
The fourth time was sort of like the second, the person lost their job and couldn't care for him anymore so they brought him back.
And then there's me.
When I got him I noticed right off the bat that he had some very strange behaviors. When the rescue lady brought him over, he made an immediate beeline towards my other cat, Kanin and tried to hide UNDER him. Kanin would try to back away but Spot just kept closing the gap, until Kanin just sat there and let Spot huddle against him shivering, while giving me a look like "What the hell, mom?"
I managed to move him into a bathroom I had set up for him to acclimate in without getting lost in the rest of the house. Weeks went by and he wouldn't come out of his linen closet. I'd tried everything I could think of, leaving the main bathroom door open so he could see into the room, tossing him treats and wet food, I sat in there every day for a few hours and read softly to him but nothing worked.
Finally Kanin had enough of missing out on perfectly good cuddle-time and insisted on being let into the bathroom. I figured why not and let him in. Immediately Spot came out and started eating. He wouldn't let me near him but it was progress!
Fast forward about a year, Spot is much better, but there's still some big things that worry me. He's doing good, he talks ALL the time and just yaps about nothing, he brings me stuffed animals and toys (he has a huge collection now because I'm an enabler and it's adorable), and he sleeps cuddled up against me at night, and SOMETIMES he even sits in my lap at the computer.
But he's still very very afraid. If I move to pet him too fast, he cringes and freezes, then bolts. If I walk into a room and look at him, he'll freeze and wince. If I move to pick him up, even if I've moved very slowly and loved on him first to calm him down, he goes completely stiff and gets wild-eyed. He never growls, but once I was clipping his nails (which can be traumatic for him, but he likes to grab my shoulder and pull, so he NEEDS them trimmed), he got my finger in his mouth and I could see he THOUGHT about biting me, but decided it was a bad idea.
He's come a long way though! If he gets scared (which is often), he climbs in my lap and hides his face against my arm and shivers. He's come to the point where he'll let my friends touch him for short periods of time as long as they move very slowly and I'm nearby.
So aside from sharing his sad tale, my question is this. Is this Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? And I feel like I'm missing something big I could be doing to help him. His history is all I know and that's just word-of-mouth so it might not even be accurate. Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing and maybe an educated guess as to why he's like this?
Also a pic, cuz pics are awesome. Spot is the grey one on the right, Kanin is the black one on the left.
