[Leo.G (Leo)]

I either rescued my cat from this today or, rescued this from my cat (neither bug nor cat injured). From everything I can find it's a bee and a friend with qualifications in the field said after seeing underside images said he believes it's a wild bee based on the leg something or other, a BIG bee around 1.5 inches in length.
Aside from a brief stay in an empty jar and sitting on a light pad with a camera overhead it was returned to the yard uninjured, to sting me another day.
I don't know what it is exactly but I don't want to stand on the thing in the back yard with bare feet (the only kind my son seems to possess and last bee sting is still healing several months after the incident).