Treat him as you would a feral rescue, make certain that there is no eye contact made between you, but if there is, just slowly bink at him twice then look away and pretend like you don't care that he's there.

But keep talking out loud to yourself the whole time. It takes a little while, but the relationship later on is soooooooo worth it! Thank you so much for caring enough to take this time with him and let him come to you on his own terms!

And keep up the great work, Marilyn! Nice blog! 🙂

I would love to hear more tips on working with scared kitties in general. I volunteer at a busy city shelter and while they have made a wonderful environment for the cats to roam in we get some poor little guys who are very scared. When I was a newbie I did get clubbed in the eye once by a tom in a solo "condo" cage who did not want me getting too close. Claws in, I'll note, because he would absolutely have shredded me if hurting was his intention. I've picked up some behaviors that seem to help but any advice you can offer would be very helpful!