The guy at the ranch where the IBKs are returned my call. I proposed taking
the whole brood and having mama spayed then bring her back, etc. as
mentioned before.

He says first of all there are now 4 kittens. Apparently mama was in the
process of moving them when I saw them and only two were with her at that
point. Next, he said his daughter wants to have the growing kittens around
to enjoy, and they don't want the mama spayed because they have such "bad
luck" keeping cats alive on the ranch, due to the various farm chemicals
laying around, and hawks.

So it looks like I have to choose, either (a) go get the little orange one,
unweaned, before it gets into something deadly, or (b) leave it with mama
for a few more weeks and pray nothing bad happens.

I am literally sick with worry and cannot eat a bite.

Also found out that the bad wheel bearing was caused by the garage not using
the correct axle nut when they fixed it before, which means it needs a whole
new spindle (or whatever it's called) in addition to the wheel bearing, but
the owner of the garage says the spindle was stripped when I originally
brought it in last year, which means I have to pay for the whole thing
because I cannot prove the spindle was not already stripped.

This is the little car my ex abandoned when he left, and I've been using it
for short trips to save on gas and preserve the minivan which has over
250,000 miles and is 18 years old. That little car has been a blessing in
many ways, not least of which is having 4WD that switches over with the push
of a button. The minivan also has 4WD but for the last three years or so
it's needed an expensive repair to get the 4WD working again.

The small car just had a few hundred dollars' worth of work done to it,
including a complete front brake job, but it's useless without front wheels.
It would only bring in maybe $500 IF it was excellent condition. Although it
has less than 85,000 miles on the odometer, it's 15 years old and needs a
new set of tires, and the a/c is broke.

Adding to these worries is the fact that my disability case is being
reviewed and there's a good chance it will be cut off as of June 1st, and
Gloria wants to toss me out so she can bring in a male caretaker and not
have to pay him (by providing a "nice" place to live). She says she can get
such a "nice" mobile home for well under $5000.

The mobile I am in, which was here when she bought the farm in 1998, is
valued at $0 (yes, ZERO) for property tax purposes, and she thinks she can
replace it with a slightly newer one of similar size without the assessor
noticing. This one won't last much longer, anyway, and would be a deathtrap
in a bad storm. For that matter, so would almost any mobile home.

I've put a couple thousand dollars into improvements - plumbing and wiring,
well and well house, roof repair, furnace and water heater, patched holes in
floor and walls, put up perimeter fencing to keep the horses from doing more
damage, etc. etc. That and taking care of the farm in her absence is why I
don't pay rent here, but she wants someone who will do heavier work than I
do and thinks she can find a independently wealthy young strong man who'll
be glad to live rent free in exchange for some farm labor and horse sitting.

I hate dumping on the NG but it's all so depressing to me that I can
scarcely put one foot ahead of the other anymore. After I had been here for
two years she told me I could stay permanently. I was hoping I might even be
able to build a small cabin someday. She had told me I could do that, too,
but a few weeks ago she said she has changed her mind about it because it
would raise her taxes, even though I offered to cover the difference.