My Hawk (my kitten, feline luekemia virus positive) is ill and his time is near...they say (the vet).  While he is not really yet "sick" or in any great distress, he has had a few minor momentary seizures, a heart murmur, and his red blood cell count is falling--1/3 to 1/4 of what is considered normal.  I had noticed in the past three weeks that his characteristic unbounded rowdiness was vanishing and I attributed that wishfully to his getting older and bigger...but no....  So he hasn't lately been the perpetual engine of playful energy that he used to be, he no longer dashes for the door to get out every time it opens, no longer dashes back and forth in the house every morning with me for our ritual wind sprints.  His energy is fading...like the fall: coolness and wistfulness and just things desultory have replaced his manic playfulness and always hovering readiness to engage in whatever was going on.  He's not yet sullen--still has moments of energetic attention and can alert to the moment of a challenging movement or sound.  But he's sliding toward eternity and lately has taken to licking the earth, the driveway, and other things that he finds just laying around.  As if, by instinct he is seeking a medicinal cure...or perhaps, growing closer to the inanimate by rasping it with his tongue.  Tis sad, indeed.  Yet a great kitten he is!  And I'm sure his heroic and intrepid spirit will carry him gallantly onward and through to his apparently imminent eternal destiny.