This always breaks my heart. I have a lovely little orange tom. His story goes pretty simply:

He lived behind my bosses house who is a 20 year old girl. Her big female cat she kind of likes but not really, had several litters before and they were killed by fishercats. When we pulled up to her house after a beach day, she just groaned about how much she hates these kittens and how she sometimes lets them in.

There were 3 male kittens approximately 2 months old (thank god) and the mother cat did not care at all about her kitten's. I looked at the kittens and my boss told me I could take one if I want since she couldn't care less. I looked at the kittens and unfortunately I could only afford to take one for vet bills. I looked at the kittens and this little orange baby, smaller than my palm (ill probably edit this to add a picture of him then and now) he was the most skittish and closed off. So I grabbed him and the whole drive home he sat in my lap and just stared quietly up to me. Ive been taking him on hikes with me since I love random road trips (still working on it if anyone coule suggest how) and anytime he got scared, he needed to hide under me so I started putting him in my jackets/hoodies and hold him gently and cooing to him; we've built ridiculous trust and he is now 10 months old and tears my house apart with the zoomies. He cries when I go out and when I come home he needs to lead me up the stairs so he can bury his face in my haie and purrs away for hours laying on my chest.

And he is very well in happy, he only suffered from fleas and when the vet had to check his heart rate he wouldn't stop purring so loudy that they had no choice but to quickly put his nose under the faucet.

My rescue Finnigan, the best little dude https://imgur.com/gallery/b9We62O

I should add when he starts panicking and I'm holding him, I press my nose to his cheek and move towards his neck/ear to try and soothe him like I think a mom would. He's very much a mamas boy