Cat Behavior

Ada on the left.

I puzzled over my cat Ada's behavior when she wants something. Rather than positioning herself near or in the direction of whatever she wants, she tends to jump up onto me and generally make a nuisance of herself until I get up. This makes it difficult to understand what she wants.

I think I finally reasoned out why she does this. It's because she frequently goes to the front door and meows, wanting me to open it. But I don't allow my cats to roam without supervision, so most of the time I say no and do not go to the door. As a consequence of this happening so frequently, she has started skipping the step of going to the door and goes straight to the next step: pestering me, climbing on my computer keyboard, or otherwise interfering with my peaceful existence.

Ada is a lovable and gregarious cat, who sits around smiling much of the time, but she is the worst nag in the world and will persist with the nagging long after any average dog or cat would have given up. I'm trying to retrain her to go to the thing she wants, but I don't know if that will work as long as she continues to want to be set free at the front door.