Any idea what kind of cat this is?

This guy totally freaked me out! I've had this plant inside for about two weeks now, no sign of any bugs, sitting on the kitchen counter, and when I walked by this morn, I saw him chewing away on the leaves, I have no idea where he came from unless he was hiding inside the dirt....

Anyway, he looks really scary and prickly, and I am a bit worried about the kids getting ahold of him, any ideas what kind he is and if he is poisonous or not...?

The pic is kinda blurry, but I think you can see him well enough, the stripes on the side are a deep red, and the spikes look very pokey, not soft and fuzzy, I can try to get a better pic if needed...
Thanks much,
Raven

Got any more info like what plant it is eating?

Oh sorry, I didn't think about that!!

It's on a passiflora that was sent to me from CA. Does that help some?

The cat's body isn't fuzzy at all, he's kinda shiny and totally hairless....
Raven

that helps :)
my guess that it's the cat of a Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia)

http://www.dallasbutterflies.com/Butterflies/LARVA/claudialarva.html
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/ca/62.htm

Thanks so much Panamon, that is exactly what he is!!! How do you find these things, you are always a plethora of info!!!

It didn't give any info about it being poisonous so I'm assuming it's not.

I think I accidently put him into hibernation/transformation mode, I didn;'t mean to, and I hope it hasn't hurt him at all.....I had put the plant with the cat on top of the fridge when I took the pic, mostly to keep it away from the boys so they wouldn't play with it until I found out if it was a bad buggy. I totally forgot the plant was up there and I opened up the freezer side to grab something out, and, WHOOSH! Down came the plant and spilled dirt everywhere!!! I swept up all the dirt and I couldn't find the cat anywhere and then it dawned on me that he might be in the freezer!!! Poor thing, I opened up the door and there he was laying on the bottom, I think he was there for only about 5 minutes. I scooped him up with a spoon and put him in the dirt at the base of plant and about 40 minutes later he climbed up on one of the leaves, but he's not moving or eating, it's now been about 3 hours, he looks like he's just sleeping. I'm going to put the passi out in the greenhouse and maybe he will cocoon and be ok, I hope!!!
Raven

It looks like my regular Gulf Fritillary.

He's doing well whatever he is!! He has definitely come out of whatever shock he got in the freezer, it looked like that evening he molted a bit, it was really interesting, I thought he was falling apart, like I had maybe squished him in the middle, but that part just fell off and he started eating like he hadn't been fed for months!! I don't know if he is doing that every night, but now he is 3 times larger than he was and eating like crazy!!! We've kept him on the kitchen counter with a couple passi plants to chew on and it;s been very cool for the kids to see him change in size from one day to the next, they are really enjoying this experience~and I am too, it's not often you get to watch a cat from soon after birth to (hopefully) cocoon, and emergence! I just hope I will have enough passi for him to dine on, I anly have the two plants and they were only recently rooted cuttings!

Raven