What the cat symbolizes in "The Blue Bowl"?

"The Blue Bowl" by Jane Kenyon does not seem to be a highly symbolic poem, but the way the family handles the burial of the cat could be said to represent how people deal with all sorts of losses. 
The first eight lines of the poem read,

Like primitives we buried the cat
with his bowl. Bare-handed
we scraped sand and gravel
back into the hole. It fell with a hiss
and thud on his side,
on his long red fur, the white feathers
that grew between his toes, and his
long, not to say aquiline, nose (1-8).

Kenyon's speaker describes how she and her family members buried their dead cat with its bowl as being "like primitives." This seems to reference ancient cultures that believed they should bury the dead with objects that they could use in the afterlife. It is also "primitive" that they use their hands to cover the hole. The cat is then described in some detail, but it is the bowl that falls "with a hiss," as the cat can no longer make such noises. Kenyon's choice to start the poem with "like primitives" sets up the idea that the family's feelings about the loss of the cat are universal and instinctual. 
 
To describe the family's feelings and behaviors after burying the cat, the speaker continues, 


We stood and brushed each other off.
There are sorrows much keener than these.
Silent the rest of the day, we worked,
ate, stared, and slept. It stormed
all night; now it clears, and a robin
burbles from a dripping bush
like the neighbor who means well
but always says the wrong thing (9-16).



When the speaker says, "We stood and brushed each other off," she seems to suggest that the burial has allowed the family to bond and also that, symbolically, humans help each other to recover in times of loss. The speaker next acknowledges that there are losses greater than that of a family cat; however, the family's behavior during the rest of the day and the closing thought of the poem suggest that losing a pet can have as significant an impact as any other death. The family goes through their routine, but there is no energy in their movements. Then, after it storms all night, a bird sings in the morning, as though the pain is over and everything is better now. Of course, that is not the case; the bird is compared to "the neighbor who means well / but always says the wrong thing." The bird cannot understand that the family still feels the loss of the cat, just as those outside the community that is grieving cannot truly know how those inside feel. The singing is a nice gesture, but it does not make the family forget about the death of the cat. Yes, life goes on, but everyone moves on at a different pace. 
 
Ultimately, the loss of the cat allows Kenyon's speaker to reflect on universal reactions to loss and the feelings and behaviors that are part of its aftermath.