More like cat tree you might get no work done on but good for te kitties

They should add radiative heating. Cats often just want to steal your warmth.

They just took a computer desk from the 90s and cut three holes in it.

> There’s another cat space on the underside of the desk surface, in the normally unutilized space in front of your knees when you’re sitting.

Yeah… If you're of a typical Japanese length. My knees appreciate all the space they can get, and that very much includes the bit of 'unused space' where a cat can go in the article.

(Living in Japan as a student really made me feel like a two metre tall giant at times. Classroom desks at Japanese universities were universally too small.)

The problem is that cats can flawlessly detect when something was made for them to use, and then will not deign to use it.

Meanwhile, the cardboard box you have forgotten to take to the recycling for three weeks will become their palace.

Also need a split keyboard so a cat can sleep in between the halves.

I have a cat bed[1] that's attached to my desk. It's got a "monitor arm" and a bed on top. My cat loves to see what I'm doing all day so she will just lay there for hours and watch me work.

[1]: https://a.co/d/0hymOUdn

I can foresee a design flaw, which is that the cat will ignore all the specially designated areas and sit on your keyboard instead.

I actually hoped for a good solution here, but this is basically a table with holes. I would not dare call such a table a solution for annoying cats. On youtube there are many examples that are better. My favourite one here is where the walls of the room are climbable areas for the cats.

My cat and I want a chair with a little shelf on the back by my head where he can sit.

Valuable lesson about understanding your potential customers. There is in fact zero chance of my cats (and probably most others) sitting where they are supposed to, they much prefer being on top to look around - and sometimes to look intently at the screen as though they are reviewing my code.

I love the weight limits being described in case someone has a particularly chonky cat

I am working from home, my office is actually the former (and current) "cat room". For nearly 10 years my SO and myself were a foster home for rescue cats. And quite a few stayed here for various reasons.

None of them would use the desk. But they really enjoy their cameos in my Teams and zoom calls. And when I am not at my desk, when I am closing my laptop for the day, they instantly enjoy flopping down on the still warm machine.

Pretty poor design all around.

I was hoping to see a glass surface for cats with keyboard and mouse space underneath so a cat can’t sit on backspace and escape key. No luck.

Putting "cat desk" into Amazon didn't show any custom desks, but did come up with a wide range of desk attachments for cats, as well as "cat laptop" (a scratching board shaped like a laptop) so this doesn't feel very surprising.

I agree with other commenters that this has about 99% chance of being ignored in favour of your keyboard, though.

Every time I get up my cat steals my chair even though he has his own next to mine

I put a chair next to my chair and now my cat sits there so she can easily bat my USB wires and threaten my hair. She also sometimes hops onto my desk and gently taps at loose things or tries to chew up papers. I think this desk would offend her, but maybe the hole would make for fun surprise attacks at me?

Was easier when I had a big CRT on my desk, and the cat would just chill on top and bat at the mouse pointer moving around the screen.

Nah, they like to lay on the laptop to eliminate their competition. They want all our attention.

Since Japan is a rule following society I assume the cats there will sleep only in the designated areas.

Just get a cardboard box, like your last Amazon delivery. They are a magnet for cats.

cat review: 1 star, I want to sleep on my warm desktop tower again

yeah, this is no go. What you want is a way for the cat to be in a box front and center. So an underdesk keyboard tray that doesn't have room for a cat to sit on, but is big/deep enough for your hands, keyboard, and mouse and a "box" on the desk proper that the cat will naturally gravitate too. Of course, this works best with desktop machines or external monitors and keyboards instead of just a laptop.