Cats and Curiosity

My cat is extremely curious and this often gets him into trouble. I’ve rescued him from high places on a few occasions, and he has gotten himself locked in more than one closet over the years. His antics have been rather amusing to a point. However, today my cat's insatiable curiosity scared me to death.

We were outside and I saw my cat looking intently at something. That is when I noticed a brown stinkbug crawling up the side of a plastic bucket and my cat walking over to investigate. Before I could reach my cat, he stuck his nose up to it and got a chemical blast in the face. He immediately backed off and ran around the corner like a bolt of lightening. When I found him, he was hunched over, eyes closed, and foaming at the mouth. This scared the living crap out of me. I immediately picked him up and ran inside where I got a wet rag and started wiping his face, eyes, and the inside of his mouth. He was in some serious pain, and I was close to a panic! After a good bit of wiping and cleaning, he started to feel somewhat better and was able to open his eyes. He sat in my lap for about an hour once I got him cleaned up and he even started purring, so I felt better and knew he would be okay. I'm not sure if the ordeal scared him more or me, but he did stay close for the remainder of the day.