I understand not going too high with the ISO on the K10d.. For newer efforts though, I would Underexpose just a little bit, maybe 1 stop. Mr Kitty has bright eyes so they won't disappear like they do on this hound, when I expose properly for his fur.
If I were doing the exact same shot again, with the same equipment (of Mr Kitty), I would switch to spot metering (my cameras are always there), meter the coat, Pick a shutter speed, close down the aperture 1+ stops (if he is in fact Black), boost the ISO if needed to keep the shutter speed fast enough. I guess you could do the same thing by going -1+ EV but that isn't a feature I play with very often.