Cat is very shy
Hello, my husband and I adopted a cat when he was 7 monts old His name is Rupert. We had another cat already who was 1 year old who is very sweet and loving and his name is Gimli. When we started interacting with Rupert we noticed he runs away if you tried to pet him, he doesn't want you to pick him up, if he gets surprised he freaks out and hides for a long time. I can understand for him to be like this after being adopted but it's been about 10 months now and he is still like this.
He is a little bit better but now he only lets you pet him when he is on his bed and if you pick him up he freaks out and pushes you away or scratches you he basically freaks out as if we have been hurting him until he is free and then he is chill but won't let you near him. I have been trying to work with him every day but he is still very scared of us.
Any idea on what we could do? He also freaks out in the car, so much that he gets explosive diarrhea every time he rides in the car. We have friend meds, calming treats, calming hormones but he doesn't seem to relax even when he is on his meds.
Has anyone dealt with a cat like this and has any suggestions on how I can get him to get used to us petting him or picking him up?