How I Accidentally Set A Cat On Fire

I used to have two cats, a very intelligent tortoise shell named Ayesha and a very stupid calico named Sam, short for Samantha. I lived in a small apartment with them and my ex husband Mike.
I had placed a table placed under the windowsill and many of the items decorating it were made of glass. There were also some nice scented candles and a lighter. I disciplined my cats many times to keep them off this table because I didn’t want the glass broken, but they loved napping in the sunny windowsill so the battle continued.
Ayesha learned that she could jump from the back of the couch, land in the center of the table with her feet together and then delicately wind her way to the prized windowsill. Sam tried many times to imitate her, but she always knocked something over in the process. I decided to leave Ayesha alone because she wasn’t breaking things or knocking them over, but Sam had me at the end of my rope. I decided to scare her. I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
I caught Sam on the table on time too many and picked up the lighter. It had quit working and needed to be thrown out. I would light it, and a flash would appear, lasting less than a second. I decided to scare her with this flash of light and see if she could finally learn to stay off the table.
It turns out the flash was actually a very tiny, very brief spark. I held the lighter inches from Sam’s face, lit it and watched in horror as her whiskers caught on fire. She mewed and ran under the couch. I screamed, “Mike! Sam’s burned! Help her!” He dove under the couch, caught her, and displayed her before my terror-stricken eyes. I’ll never forget her face, as wide-eyed as my own with charred whiskers on one side. As I watched, a charred whisker fell off. It wasn’t long before they all did. I’d like to say that was the only injuries, but we were both emotionally scarred for life.
Eventually, she got over her fear of me and her whiskers grew back. I got over my guilt and learned to laugh at the incident, but I will never forget the horror I felt when her whiskers burst into flames.