What kind of wire for an upright tail?

I'm trying to perfect the "upright tail" through a lot of trial and error (no one has made a tutorial about this yet that I can find - I'll share when I figure it out) and I'm wondering what kind of wire would be best. I want this to be a free standing skunk tail, and it is using a foam core. Basically I want to run the wire through the middle like a spine, and probably also along the outer edges of the foam core (attached to or slightly inside the foam). I plan to connect the middle "spine" wire with the outside wire in rungs for support on each side of the foam core if it needs it. I'll draw a picture if this doesn't make sense.

Anyway, I'm thinking coat hanger wire is probably going to work, but I wish it was a little more pliable (but not too pliable - the 28 guage at Michael's was way too pliable). Does anyone have any suggestions? Have any of you used wire in a tail before?

Thanks in advance!