Reggie's White Achilles Heels

Most of the time, when we're describing our cats to other people, we will tell people that we have two Siamese cats, a grey-and-white cow-print cat, an orange tabby, a black-and-white tuxedo cat, and a black cat.  Only that last part isn't really true.  Reggie is actually a mostly black cat with a few stray white hairs on his chest.  And a few stray single white hairs all over the rest of his body.  They're a little longer than the rest of his black hairs, so they stick out a little and they're pretty obvious when you look at him up close.

What's interesting about this is that he is very, very sensitive about these white hairs.  Not sensitive in the sense that he gets embarrassed if you mention them.  They are actually sensitive.  Cats naturally have whiskers and guard hairs in various specific parts of their bodies--their cheeks, above their eyes, on the backs of their paws.  They're especially sensitive so that cats can maneuver in the dark better by noticing when their whiskers, for example, are touching something.  Reggie's DNA seems to have gone haywire and produced guard hairs all over his body.  

The first time we noticed this, we gently touched one of the hairs, only to be met with a hiss and Reggie trying to bite our fingers.  Being naturally scientific sorts, we tried another one, just to see if we'd get the same reaction.  Sure enough, annoyed Reggie tried to bite us again and then promptly ran away.  Eventually, we realized that it was a pretty good control mechanism for us.  Let's say Reggie is having too much fun waking us up by using his claws to pull down my lower lip (for example) or smacking Sean on his chin to get his attention while he is working.  Without raising our voices or doing anything outwardly aggressive, we can gently touch a white hair and watch while Reggie suddenly remembers he has something else he had to do.  

Works like a charm every time.