Yes, the cat came back. They thought he was a goner. But the cat came back. He just wouldn't stay away.

That was my first thought. Poor kitty. :'(

First thought that came to my mind. When my chocolate lab passed my cat, who had been around all his life, began going to call his favorite spots and crying. We had to sit her down and tell her that he wasn't coming back home, oddly that settled her down.

I used to have two cats who were brothers from the same litter. One of them got out and never came back, and the other just cries all the time now. It's heartbreaking.

My first thought too. Poor cat misses its friend. I hope you gave him/her some extra affection, OP. The amount of noise that the cat's making shouldn't be your biggest concern.

My cat still does that even though his little buddy died almost a year ago. They miss their friends just as much as we do :'(

Yep. We lost our boy cat six months ago and our girl cat is still devastated. She howls and walks around the house looking for him all the time :(

Cats grieve too...My boyfriend was killed in a car accident 6 months ago. My cat howls and still looks for him walking in behind me whenever I come home from work. As if I'm not heart broken enough, that hurts me too. Poor little guy.

I also thought that poor kitty is grieving. Stupid human.

26, this has helped in my family too. I hope you will gently talk to your cat, OP. And then give it your undivided affection and tenderness.

Really wish I could forget everything I just read in this thread. This just set the tone for an awfully sad day.

#3: Should we WANT the cat to understand? It's "He's gone; I can't find him; I might never see him again" vs "He's dead; This is his corpse; There is nothing that can be done". I don't know what it's like to BE a cat, but introducing them to the concept of (by proxy - their own) mortality might be somewhat cruel if educational...

#27 it's pretty widely accepted that animals are already pretty aware of they're mortality, so to speak. That is why lots of animals will wander away from their pack/herd/family/(other various group name) or hide in their home when they are about to pass. The idea here is that if the other animal is just gone, then the surviving animal doesn't have any understanding as to why and will become depressed while waiting for the deceased to return. If they are allowed to see the passed animal then they may still be sad, but at least they will understand why their friend is gone and won't be coming back.

Cats will do that. They hide when they pass away. Usually somewheres warm and soft. Dogs understand death and so do cats. Elephants mourn their dead for a couple days and then move on. Apes do the same thing.

Wouldn't you rather know one of your closest family members (that's most likely how these cats viewed each other) had passed away than simply waiting and wondering? This is the reason why missing-persons cases leave such an emotional and psychological impact on loved ones. Animals, especially domesticated ones, are conscious of more than most people are willing to accept. OP I hope you have the chance to help your cat understand what happened. If you have pictures of the other cat, or even videos of the cats together, that you could show your cat it might help.

I think elephants even bury their dead (or at least I remember some animal like them does)

speaking of grieving, I saw in a documentary that elephants "bury" their dead with foliage.

That has nothing to do with this...

Dogs grieve as well and can be just as vocal. Each animals reaction is vastly different as are humans.

I wanted to make a similar joke but this is no laughing matter. An animal is grieving at best, and is at worst confused and depressed. You should take inspiration from the animal you seem to favour and provide unconditional support and compassion to OP; you know that's what a dog would do.