After reading this ng for a while, especially info about ferals, I have a few
questions.  You see, I was always a dog person before Oscar adopted me, and I
really didn't know the first thing about cats.  So, a few questions.

Oscar was born to a stray (I suppose feral is the right term?) cat who roamed
a co-worker's neighborhood.  I got her at eight weeks of age.  Specifically,
the mother had decided to keep her litter under the deck of one of the houses.
The residents caught the kittens, fed them, and gave Oscar to their daughter.
Their daughter's fiance wasn't told in advance, and the kitten came back
pronto.  I am not exactly sure how long the people in question had the
kittens, but I think it was a matter of a day or two, not terribly long.

So, first question -- is a kitten caught at an age of 8 weeks considered
feral?  Has it already acquired feral tendencies?

The reason I ask is because Oscar has always been a timid cat.  She likes to
hide under the bed.  She takes a very long time to warm up to people.  She
zooms out of the room if she encounters a loud noise or a swift movement.
Paws and belly are not to be touched, under any circumstances.  She will go
from a purring machine to a biter and clawer, then back again, in time periods
measuring in nanoseconds.  When I pet her, her tail twitches back and forth,
even when she's purring.  It seems like she just can't let down her guard.
But she's clearly affectionate in her own way; when we come home in the
evening, she's always near us as we move from room to room.  She sleeps at my
feet on the bed.  She licks my hands and gives me headbutts to remind me to
pet her.  My husband can even get her to "dance" with him by picking up her
front paws, though she just tolerates it.  (Odd, it's just occured to me that
this is the only time she lets her paws be touched.)

So I'm wondering -- is this because she was born outside of a human home?  Is
this just her personality, something she was born to be?  Or have I somehow,
in ignorance, raised her to be this way?  I'm sure my behavior hasn't always
been perfect.  There have been times when she bit me and I instinctively
bapped her right back in the head, although very lightly.  I had a
long-distance boyfriend for a while who sometimes held her against her will
when she wanted to leave, thinking that he would show her who's boss, I
suppose -- I really didn't like that, and he didn't last all that long.

I love my cat, but my parents and I jokingly call her the "ice queen," my MIL
says Oscar has "wild" eyes, and I just wonder -- was I a bad cat-mom, or was
this just the luck of the draw?