It never fails to amaze me how cats can change in their lifetimes. But even more so with feral/rescue cats. If anything happens to put them under stress, they often revert back to their early behavior. So it's like winning their trust all over again. You have to show them that you are a member of their pride.... their family. Show them that you are not going to go away, not going to leave them to starve, to shiver, to die. Now in some cases of rescue cats, it wasn't the owner's fault, death and/or illness and/or job loss can make a bad situation happen and if there isn't someone to immediately take the pet. ::closes eyes:: I've had to say "I'm sorry, but I have all the cats I can handle right now" to friends and it hurts like hell doing it (pardon my french).
Back to what I was saying, sorry got off track there a bit, but when something traumatic happens in a cat's life (which may or may not be visible to the cat's companion) it's back to the beginning, do not pass GO, do not collect 200 cloth mice. So, now I am patiently trying to restore the confidence and love in Man in a little skitty black cat... carefully. Not that I won't always worry about him. I worry about all of my cats, but he's a black cat and some people, quite frankly, are... strange... in a bad way.
Good night/day... and may it be a quiet one.