Could be a faulty one? I found the threading to be weak, but not to the point of it coming out? Also, the noise thing can occur if it's not sitting right (also the lack of water thing).. In any case, sorry it didn't work out for you.
Oh, and most water pumps need to be "primed"...at least any that I've come across...pumps on fish tanks are the same thing, you pour water through them to get it all started.
"The pump died" translation: It was working fine, I unplugged it when I needed to fill it up the same way I always had, I filled the tank, put it back on, plugged the pump (still sitting in water like before) into the wall and... nothing.
I adopted 2 cats myself, twins...a brother and sister when they were 3 months old. Then when they were 1year and 1 month old I adopted another 6 week old kitten.