Hi, I'm Lara and I just adopted my first kitty from a local rescue yesterday, 7 month old Oliver. They said he was rescued from an area with a lot of larger, aggressive animals. He went into a foster home about a month ago, and they have an older cat that was also aggressive toward him. So he's extremely shy.
When he first arrived yesterday, it only took a minute or so for him to come out of the pet taxi, but he ran straight for a storage case and hid behind it for a moment before running back in the taxi. They ended up leaving it with me because he wouldn't budge. After about three hours, we got him to move into my canvas cat carrier, which has bedding in the bottom. He stayed there for another six hours. He finally came out last night and ate when I brought out some canned food, used the litter box, and explored. But then he found that there's a hiding space under the couch, so that's sort of where he stays.
He did come out last night, and ventured upstairs where my bedroom is. He didn't realize I'd be there, however, so when I woke up and greeted him, he jetted back downstairs and under the couch. I had to feed him his breakfast under there this morning because after three hours he'd still not come out. But soon after he started exploring periodically. He will let me pet him for a moment before running off and checking out other things or use the litter box, then he's back under the couch. He'll also play from under there, if I slide a toy or my hand by, he'll purr and paw at it/me. He'll also paw at my feet when I'm sitting on the couch.
I think he may be accustomed to hiding, having perhaps done that most of his life. Because he doesn't seem scared. He does jerk away or back up when he sees us. He's very engaging and playful. But he likes being in a sort of hiding spot. I'm hoping he's just taking time to adjust, but I don't really know, having never owned a cat before. So anyway, the above picture was taken by his foster owner about a month ago. Here's my view of him: