Your poor baby! It sounds painful... for both of you.

I have one that looks just like her, she has her needy moments. She has this tiny little meow, and loves to fluff her pillow (especially your full belly and/or bladder). She's pretty friendly, but I think if we all disappeared for 6 days she'd get a little neurotic.

We have one in particular that is very needy. If he squirts out the door and gets stuck outside overnight, or stuck in a bedroom with the door closed for too long, or if you leave for any period of time, he is very clingy after you are reunited. Following you around, winding between your feet, drooling, licking, meowing, demanding the pettins NOW, you name it. He was originally a rescue, and I think the whole experience rewired his poor little brain. He has a food complex, too. If we left him alone for 6 days, he might revert to kittenhood.

I have a couple that do the "aloof" thing. When I'm gone for a while and return, they have to go everywhere I go, but they don't necessarily want attention, just to be NEAR (with that STARE). They also seem to meow at me a lot more than normal, I could swear I'm getting a lecture ("now mom, I know you understand how picky we are about our habits, and you just had to go and ruin it, how rude!"). Normally, when I get up in the morning, they come downstairs with me and go upstairs when I go to bed, but when I return from travel it seems like everywhere I go there they are. Thankfully, I usually travel alone but don't live alone, so someone is at home with the cats almost all the time.

It would be cool if you could find someone they could get familiar with, so they weren't freaked out when someone new came in (half of mine would hide if a stranger came around, but thankfully the most needy would come out no matter who it was). Even a friend that could sit in your house for a couple of hours, watch TV, read a book, do normal "you" things that would make them feel less alone. It's not a substitute for you and there will still be some neediness when you come home, but at least they can satisfy some of their apprehension and fluff someone else's pillow for a while.