Is It Anxiety?

[Sugared]

I'm looking for advice on what to do about my cat's incessant crying. Here's the story:

My cat is roughly 5 years old, a neutered male, indoor life. It's a two cat household, his spayed sister is the same age.

My day involves spending a lot of time using a computer, at home. My male has a big issue with this, for unknown reasons. From the moment I sit down at my desk, he's crying and nothing I do can make him stop. I set aside quality time for us to play or cuddle. He gets treats occasionally, there's a bed right next to the desk so he's near me, even a cleared space on the desk itself if he wants to be touching me (very tactile cat).

The only time he seems to be happy is when I leave the desk. He'll sit in the doorway of the room or several feet behind my chair and cry until I get up. Then he wanders off to somewhere else in the house and has no more interest in me. He simply doesn't want me at the desk.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this, suggestions? I'd appreciate it, thank you.

 

[Jem]

Do you talk to him, or tell him no, when you are at your desk? Sometimes ANY type of attention (even bad) "rewards him". This may take a while, but try TOTALLY ignoring him, don't even tell him no or shut up, look or even breath in his direction when he's like this.
Also, before your are going to sit at your desk, play with him until he's tired then give him a small meal, hopefully at this point he will go groom himself and then find somewhere to sleep. If you follow that up with the total ignore, he "should" learn that desk time is not his time.
That's really all I can offer, I have a cat who used to display that type of behavior and I had to work hard on creating a new routine that HAD to be followed to a tee EVERY SINGLE TIME. He learned eventually. Now it's only 2 or 3 minutes of loud crying, before he gives up and moves on to something else if I'm busy.

But I can't stress enough that the TOTAL IGNORE is paramount!!!!!

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

This may sound weird... but with a cat that has that kind of a social bond with you, it may just be that he needs or wants the visual of seeing your face.

I wonder: does your desk face away from the doorway? You said he cries from the doorway or several feet behind your chair. Have you tried turning the desk so that you are facing the doorway? Or even putting a smallish framed mirror in a position so that you can attract his attention while you're at the desk, and he can glance in the mirror and see your face reflected there? (the things we try to do for our cats!)

--(I realize this is the opposite advice from the previous poster, but I do think some cats just remain "needy" and the ability to see the loved human's face quietens them down.)