You can extract that lightening very nicely with "Calculations" set to "Grey + Gray and Multiply". I don't have a mic but I made a video for you to show you how to do this lightning VERY VERY quickly and very decently. Mind you, this is a good extraction, but there is more to it if you want to get it better. You will have to research this more if you want to get into absolute perfection, but what I showed you in the video is very fast and mostly good enough. I advice you to research Calculations (as well as Channel Masking). It is an extremely powerful tool!!

https://youtu.be/9In0YM67gyQ

Also there are "hair/grass" brushes in Photoshop. I think they are #133 and #134 or there abouts. You can use them to mask in the cat's antennae rather than just putting a black dot over them. Hope this all helps.

The comments given to you above are a goldmine of information, not only for you but to those of us struggling. I love your idea, it is truly creative...just needs polishing up.