Armoured

I'm blipping this solely because I have no idea what kind of caterpillar it is and I've never seen its like before. It's huge -- close to 10 cm/4 in. long.  Seen on our group walk this afternoon. I'm hoping someone can tell me what it is. I saw a swallowtail caterpillar too, and two buzzards, one of which took off from the track just yards ahead of us before I could get my camera out. We did about 7 km in two hours. There was chatting, but not an excessive amount.

Last night after we went to bed, I was alerted by a thud and a clatter. Switching the light on, I found that Mystère, who had been peacefully sleeping on a chair, was having another hyperventilating and dribbling episode, having had one last March. I suppose it was a little bit less panic-inducing than last time, but not much. I put him on the bed and stroked and talked to him, and within ten minutes he'd stopped panting and was stretched out asleep. I didn't sleep well though, especially as he woke me up periodically by coming and sitting on top of me.

This time I did phone our vet first thing in the morning, so when I got back from our walk I was straight out again with Mystère. The vet did a blood test and found nothing particularly wrong for an old cat (he's 14) -- in particular his kidneys are fine. She prescribed some tablets to perk him up a bit, and said that probably it was a temporary lack of oxygen in his brain, which sounds like a mini-stroke to me. If it starts to happen more frequently, there's medication he can take. For the moment, he's still confined to the house, but he's been perfectly normal all day, just a bit tired (and stressed by the vet visit). So, fingers crossed.