Is my cat faking for attention?

[Teacuphiccup]

My cat has suddenly started getting ‘stuck’ under the bed. She climbs under then cries and cries that she’s stuck, we have to lift up the mattress and she climbs out the gaps between the slats.
This is very irritating and recently when we’ve let her out of the slats she just immediately goes back under the bed again
She does this in the middle of the night

I’ve tried just ignoring her but she cries and cries and it’s just under my ear if I’m on the bed, plus I imagine her needing the toilet and feel bad.
I can’t lock her out the room because she wails and digs up the carpet.

She gets looooooads of attention and has lots of stimulation so I don’t think she’s bored.

Am I bad to think she’s not really stuck and actually just thinks it’s funny?

How old is she? It couldn’t be loss of eyesight or dementia could it?

She’s only four so I don’t think it’s dementia.

She’s a very demanding cat in general, she’ll only drink out of the two (we’ve bought so many drinks fountains) and sometimes even if there’s someone in the bathroom will go to someone else and harass them until they carry her to the tap.

Two was supposed to say tap

Don’t know but years ago we had a cat who was very good at pretending he was stuck on the shed roof, as he liked us to lift up a washing up bowl for him to step into and be lowered to the ground like a little emperor.
However if he thought no one was in he could get down quite easily!

We had a different that would limp and look very sad if you were rating something tasty or ignoring her. She'd leap around like a loon if you gave her a bit of biscuit.

Different!?? Dog!

at the thought of the little emperor

Sorry not helpful at all but the image of the little king in his washing up bowl has me creasing

My cat had kidney failure & gets confused & stuck places. Thankfully he's an indoor cat so we can rescue him easily enough,

He was a Siamese, needless to say.
My friend had two poodle sisters who used to regularly scrap. One was a bit of a bully, and for hours after one of their fights the other would shake whenever anyone looked in her direction, as if to say, poor me, I’m so traumatised, and bask in the sympathy and fuss while shooting triumphant glances at her sister.

I think she's having you on, our little Oriental used to get a terribly sore paw and limp when she thought she was being neglected. Can you put storage boxes under the bed or would she just manoevour herself around them. If she got in she can get out.😁

Love the visual of the little emperor!

I think it's probably attention seeking. They do have a sense of humour though - mine loves to suddenly jump at me and make me scream, I swear she does a little cat snicker

Not a cat but my horse does a good job of "my leg is hanging off, I can't possibly do any work today"
Put her in the field and 5 minutes later she's galloping around squealing at her mates

Could you put stuff under the bed for a few weeks so she can’t get under there? Hopefully she’ll get bored trying soon enough

Does she ever get stuck when you are out? Have you ever come home & found her stuck there?

at the emperor

2 of mine do similar.

One lies halfway under the bed, with her claws ‘stuck’ in the frame, and makes the little chirpy noises. As soon as you reach down, she’s off.

The other meows as he gets ‘stuck’ on the shed roof too. He won’t come down unless one of us waits for him at the end.

Can you block off where she gets in? We did this with the previous bed with pillows, as one of the slat fixings went missing and I was terrified we’d fall through on top of the cats!

peter nope never found her stuck

My cat sometimes pretends that I have stepped on her tail- yowls in a pained and outraged manner when I go past her (as she sits at her food bowl, demanding wet food).

Its not faking exactly but it is learned behaviour. If I do this then I will get attention. Our cat digs up the carpet when he wants fed at night because when he did it the first few times my DH fef him to make him stop. Its quite easy to accidentally reinforce negative behaviour.

I agree that if she can get in she can get out. My younger cat has taken to sitting on the outside wall and crying when I'm in the shower. He just wants attention and because he's done it at the crack of dawn before I go to work a couple of times and I've rushed down to let him in to prevent him from giving the neighbours a wakeup call he thinks it's always worth a try. They are hardwired evolutionarily to try and change our behaviour. In a battle of wills... (certainly in my older girl's case) the cat often wins

This is cat ownership Mine 'hides' under furniture to get attention and treats, in the hope I'll think she's scared...I used to fall for it when I first got her. They train us

Does she do other attention seeking behaviours at other times?

One of our kittens started with this. She wouldn't go outside as she was scared but inside was driving us fecking nuts with her need to be entertained 24/7.

We made her go outside as we couldn't stand it anymore. We looked like a pair of idiots with a scared cat at our feet who panicked each time we moved but 2 days of trying and we cracked it and she now goes outside, not far but happily and does catty things like sitting and watching the birds and catching flies and isn't such a loon inside.

So yes, you cat could be winding you up out of boredom. She needs other stuff to do.

Laughing at the thought of a washing up bowl Sedia gestatoria. ( the platform popes used to be carried on)