I have a fan club

Ok, so its only 1 person so far (Hi Kat!) but it makes me feel special and interesting and important.

My quest continues to get my poor little scared kitty Figaro to let us touch him:

For the record, he is yawning in that pic, not being mean.

My latest attempt looks promising, using this funky rubber brush I got at petsmart:

He likes it so far, but he also hasn't really noticed that my hand is holding it.

Here's the background on our situation. We got him at 6 months old in November from the local shelter. He would purr whenever we picked him up but that can also be a sign of fear but once he's relaxed and rolling around in exctasy, its pretty clear that he's happy. Still, as he grew, he wouldn't let us pick him up or touch him unless he was in a specific spot and was totally relaxed/off guard. Meanwhile, he would cuddle up to me at night, sleep between my feet and was known to purr and inch his way up to my armpit while I slept. He was terrified of any strange people and guests who stayed the weekend never even saw him, he'd only come out to eat or play at night. We found out through the shelter that he had been trapped with his feral mom which seems to explain a lot of his behavior.

However his playfulness was a bit too much for Biff:

Who was too old to be wrestling with a kitty at all hours. Sure, she didn't mind a little play but sometimes she just wanted to be left alone. That is part of the reason we got Clio:

(the cutest cat in the WORLD with a personality to match!)

To play with him. From that point on, he would play with Clio, cuddle with Biff and had no use for us humans. He didn't seem upset at the addition to the family, more that he didn't need us for anything anymore. Our wedding and honeymoon where we were gone and had my sister-in-law house sitting seemed to have upset him further (ruined his routine) and he no longer came on the bed at night to sleep between my feet and petting him became a rarer occurance.

We decided to medicate him with some birth control from the vet (he's fixed, its an anti-depressant thing) since it worked miracles for my mother-in-law with her feral-born cat who was scared of everyone. I was just so worried that his fear/anxiety was not good for him.

Well, that turned out to be a huge mistake. Now we had to catch him once or twice a week and squirt this stuff in his mouth. We had a few traumatic catches where he got scared and hurt me, peed on himself etc. I would always hold him afterwards until he relaxed and purred, sometimes even drooled on me and would eat a treat. We had a few rare moments where it looked like the medicine was working... he came out when we had loud guests, ate then walked back to his room... we were able to pet him once or twice when he wasn't in a special spot and wasn't totally relaxed. But now he's terrified of us... if we make the slightest move in his direction, look at him, or even say his name, he runs under the bed. He's even afraid of toys that he used to aggressively play with. I almost wonder if the medication messed up his hunting instincts or if the trauma of catching him is behind it all.

So now we're leaving him alone, teaching him that we'll respect his wishes and that he can trust us. Its just so sad because he LOVES being pet/held and brushed.... but doesn't seem to associate all those good feelings with my hands and therefore won't let my hands near him.

So now I'm using this brush and so far, there are a few signs that it may work. I was able to stroke him with it a few times under the bed yesterday and today, he was walking up to it, sniffing it, batting at it, rubbing his face on it even though my hand was holding it. (Of course I couldn't look at him and see this behavior, I had to assume based on what I felt and what his shadow was doing). I just want him to be happy and have a good life, and if he hated being touched, I would just let him be, but he truly loves a good petting but is so scared of us that I want to move slowly and see if we can bond with him.

I'll definitely be talking about this a bit on here since it worries me and until I have kids... the cats are my kids I guess.