cat love/fear cycle for no reason

Question
Adopted from shelter a brother and sister DSH cat 3 years old. Female very friendly first off and male was stand-offish.  Worked with male to get him out more, now female has episodes where for no reason she acts timid and fearful towards my husband and then will snap out of it and be in his lap. What could have caused the change? She will cower and slink to a corner and stare him down.  She is not aggressive, just avoids him.  We have tried to modify her behavior by cuddling her, leaving her alone, but she is still behaving this way unexpectedly with no common trigger to be found.  For example he will get on all fours to play with them and all is well, then the next day he gets on all fours and she slinks away, or she will go to eat and he will kindly say something to her and again she slinks.  Any ideas on why the change? Would medication for behavior help?

Answer
Cats are no different then you and I. We have bad days and good days. We are not all born with perfect personalities. Neither are cats.

So what this means is that until these cats feel safe with you and their surroundings, they could exhibit some odd behavior.

You didn't say how long you've had them, but she could have suffered some trauma from being sheltered and she will need some time to come out of it.

She shows promise, so I would just have some patience and don't take it personally when she slinks off and needs to be alone. So let her be and she will start to feel safer and safer as time goes on and the episodes on the lap will come more often.

My own cat is 10 and there are times she is all over me and times she bites me just to leave her alone. I don't punish her but I do leave her be. Next thing I know she wants to be loved again.

So like those we love of the human variety, we need to just let the flow of their personalities unfold and be accepted.

Now if she was being aggressive, that's an issue that would need dealing with for behavior modification. But it sounds like she is just being cautious and learning to settle in.