No, your cat is not tricking you or setting a trap for you. You’re just misreading what she’s trying to communicate.
Basically, there are two ways that cats bond with their colonymates (and if you own a cat, you count as a colonymate): grooming, and play. Grooming is self-explanatory; play mostly means means wrestling, because cats are hardcore like that.
A cat who wishes to engage in bonding - whether grooming or play - is going to do one of two things: either she’s going to initiate bonding, or she’s going to solicit bonding. A cat who wants to initiate bonding will just walk up and start licking or wrestling with with you; conversely, a cat who wants to solicit bonding will indicate, in some fashion, that she wants you to be the one to start grooming or playing with her.
Now, here’s the trick: because play for a cat typically means play-fighting, one of the most common ways for a cat to solicit play is to deliberately adopt a vulnerable position, thereby communicating that her prospective partner should mock-attack her in order to begin a wrestling match.
Basically, if your cat rolls over onto her back and looks at you really expectantly, like she’s anticipating some action on your part, and you go in for a belly rub and get your hand shredded, it’s not a kitty prank. Rather, you misinterpreted a solicitation for play as a solicitation for grooming.
You’ll save yourself a lot of blood loss if you learn to tell the difference!
(It’s possible to teach a cat how to roughhouse with a human partner without causing injury, but it takes work. If you aren’t able to put in that kind of training time, it’s usually best to redirect to a different form of play when you recognise that your cat is trying to get a wrestling match going; a game of chase is a popular alternative.)
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