"When the Fifi is Away" is the third story featured in Haunted Mansion #1. It was written and drawn by Roman Dirge, and concerns the ghostly animals that inhabit the mansion's pet cemetery.
Synopsis[]
On the side of the antebellum mansion sits a small plot of turf, occupied by the graves of various animals and pets. As the story begins, the spirits of the animals emerge from their graves, including Old Flybait, Buddy, Freddie the Bat and Fifi; the latter whom immediatly begins complaining about her state. The spirit of a cat (who died choking on one of the ghostly birds he consumed) tells Fifi she should just deal with being dead, but Fifi laments that the problem lies in that she cannot be with her owner, who she sees staring out the mansion window every night and imagines misses her. Perspective then switches to the watcher in the attic window, revealed to be the Bride pining for her lost husband. The ghost woman ponders why she continues to look for him in vain night after night... and also wonders why the little rat dog in the yard below keeps staring at her.
The cat explains to Fifi that there's no way she and the Bride can ever be together, since they're "outside ghosts" and the Bride is an "inside ghosts," and they're stuck that way. He then goes on to mention that if hadn't used all 9 of his lives, he'd give Fifi a spare just to shut her up. He lists all the ways he's died, but Fifi points out he's only named eight deaths. Surprised, the cat digs into his pocket and finds his 9th life. Fifi demands he give it over, but the cat says that he was just teasing and instead starts mulling over the possibilities of his new chance at life; while he's preoccupied, Fif snatches the life from his paw, eats it, and becomes mortal again, gloating triumphantly how she'll march right into the house and be with her owner again.
Meanwhile, the Bride had come to a decision: she will no longer let her feelings for her absent husband rule her afterlife. Taking her wedding ring, she throws it out the window, where it happens to become lodged in Fifi's skull and kills her again. The cat mockingly asks Fifi how her time as a mortal was, to which Fifi - now with a ring protruding from her skull - mutters for him to shut up while Freddie the bat laughs at her.