Another spent whisker story: in one of my favorite books, "A Cat Named Darwin: How a Stray Cat Changed a Man into a Human Being" by William Jordan, the author fondly tells of a time that he narrowly avoided disaster when he chose to tickle Darwin's foot with a spent cat whisker. The cat was sleeping, and the man tickled and poked at paw pads with only the whisker, until he suddenly found himself in a cat death grip, with front paws wrapped around his hand, back legs poised for arm evisceration, and mouth clamped on fingers. Darwin the cat did not break the skin, but his posture meant business! Quickly cooing and coaxing to convince the cat to let go, the author dropped that whisker and was released, but he learned a valuable lesson about tickling his sleeping cat!
