Cat Fakes Limp for Sympathy Before Hilariously Switching Paws

Cats are known for being tricksy and mischievous, and now one woman has managed to capture her pet's chicanery on camera.

In a TikTok video watched more than 10.5 million times, her cat fakes a limp to get attention, then forgets which paw is meant to be hurting.

The ginger moggy, named Edward, looks woebegone as he sits on the kitchen counter, with his left paw in the air and apparently injured. His owner, who posts under the name @hotclowning and is thought to live in the U.S., isn't easily fooled, saying off-camera: "Not this again, honey."

Despite suspecting deception, she gives him lots of strokes and cuddles. Clearly revelling in the attention, he hops on his supposedly good right foreleg, as @hotclowning annotates Edward's thoughts, writing: "My left paw need love."

She scratches him and coos: "What happened, baby?"

Edward then walks to the edge of the counter and stretches, as his owner continues to narrate his thoughts via captions, writing: "Hold on gotta stretch. Oh yeah the paw." Edward seemingly remembers that he was pretending to be hurt and lifts his paw again—but hilariously mixes up his right and left and raises the wrong paw.

"Oh my God. You just switched paws," his owner says. The sneaky move was posted at the end of last month on TikTok, where it has more than 2 million likes. The video, which can be seen here, is simply captioned: "He's a drama queen."

In the comments, Edward's owner confirmed that he wasn't injured: "He's ok for everyone asking. Not declawed and is only three and got a clean bill of health from the vet. Just didn't get attention all day."

She added that Edward had pulled this stunt before. His acting skills were applauded by other pet owners on social media.

Sheeps wrote: "My cat once kept a limp up for so long I took her to the vet. Vet found nothing. Limp vanished upon leaving."

Em Phillips revealed: "My cat once hurt his leg so we felt sorry for him and gave him extra food and now when he wants food he sits there with one paw lifted up."

It's not just cats who employ this ruse to get affection, as Chloe Estelle wrote: "My dog limps if he gets hurt. He hits his head, he limps. He got scratched by the car, he limps. Dramatic."

Update 9/13/21, 10:23 a.m. ET: This article was updated with video and photo from @hotclownwing.