Extremely timid and fearful cat

I have two identical 10-month-old cats, who were born under my bed. They cannot be more different personality-wise. One is friendly, playful, curious, and extremely outgoing. The other is deathly afraid of people, even me and my husband. We find this so strange since we have had them since birth. BJ, the timid one, gets along fine with the other cats in the house, and even plays with them, it's just people that he avoids. If we try to pet him, no matter how carefully we approach him, he bristles and flinches as though he expects to be hit! If you pick him up, he howls in fright. We have tried all approaches with him, using food to lure him, etc., and he just won't come around. We didn't intend to keep him, but I don't see how he would make anyone a good pet. Plus, he urinates all over the house.

Why on earth would he be like this? Is there any hope for him?

Have you talked to a vet about this?

Some cats just have different personalities. It may be something he just inherited as an instinct.

My only suggestion would be getting him vet checked since there may be problem in him health wise, or he may be hurting from injury that you cant see. And he may be acting out due to problem.

I would also suggest getting a Feliway diffuser for a couple or maybe just the main room in the house that this kitty stays. It is a plug-in thing, or you can get the spray, to spray on couches, floors, and things. Or the plug-in one just sends the aroma throughout the room.

It sends out the friendly hormone that cats have, and it supposed to help with urinating outside the box, and cats in mutliple cat homes. I have one, and I love it. It workes very well with scardy cats, and it sounds like it help in your situation.

here is a link for some info on it..

http://www.catfaeries.com/feliway.html

The cheapest I have found it was on www.Petguys.com

Search for Feliway(the spray) or Comfort zone(the plug-in) I suggest the plug in. Hope that helps a little bit.

If everything checks out OK at the vet, you can also try Bach Flower Essences. My recently-acquired 9-year-old torti came to us terrified of pretty much EVERYTHING...that's why I adopted her, cause I knew that no one else would. She has been with us for 4 1/2 months is is just FINALLY starting to come out of her shell. The slightest noise will still send her running but after a few weeks of a Bach Flower Essence combination (along with patience & gentle approaches from her humans) she has decided that maybe we DON'T want to hurt her. Check out www.spiritessence.com for more information. Now that she will let me pet her, we also use TTouch, which is a hands-on behavior modification method created by Linda Tellington Jones that can work wonders with timid and/or frightened animals. Check out http://tteam-ttouch.com/ttouch.shtml for more info. I have even had luck using it on feral kittens at the shelter I work at...you can use 4 ft. long "wands" to do the touching if you can't get close enough to put your hands on the kitty.

Amanda