O where, o where is my little black kitty?

As a child I remember my mom singing a song about a little gray kitty that was lost.  It started out, "O where, o where is my little gray kitty, o where, o where could she be?"  Or that is how I remember it anyway.  It talks about how they look under the table and under the chair, they even go down to the brook to see if the kitty drown. 

I find myself in the same problem... but with our black kitty.  GATO (gee-ah-tee-oh) has been gone for about a week an a half.  In fact he disapeared the day before my sisiters came into town.  It wasn't like him to go off for more than a day. 

I called the animal control and they didn't pick up anything in our neighborhood around that time, I even looked at the animal shelter.  That was REALLY sad, all those poor kitties meowing and begging for their homes, or even for some attention.  There were a few that looked much like him, but he had a bald spot on his back side where he was in a fight and I shaved his back so I could treat the area. 

Now we are cat-less.  Not that Robert really cares, he has been wanting to get rid of the cat since we got it.  It is strange when you get use to having something and then you don't have it anymore.  I am constantly going somewhere and expecting to see him.  On the kids' beds, in my closet, on the couch, in Samantha's bed, sitting on the stairs in the garage.  I still will hear something and think it is him meowing, which then makes me run to the door and search for him. 

I think something ate him.  Poor cat.  He was about 9 years old.  He was a good cat.  He was great with the kids, even when they tied him up in a pillow case, or we dressed him up and put him in a build-a-bear box as the build-a-cat.  The girls have drag him around, crawled on him, sat on him.  I remember Lauren once sitting on him like a horse and he was squished to the ground... Lauren was rocking back and forth yelling, "go, go, go!" 

Now I am just wondering when do I get our next cat, for Amber's birthday or maybe Christmas?  Robert says we shouldn't get one again... but it doesn't seem right to not get one.  Maybe what would be best is get a kitten when we get a puppy so they can be friends together?  Until then, I have a just opened bag of cat food.