Cat that finds way into soldiers’ hearts has new home in Caribou

CARIBOU – HP is a fun-loving cat who’s right at home with two other cats, a dog and Spc. Jesse Cote’s family in northern Maine – 7,000 miles from where he was found outside the infamous Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, Iraq.

HP – possibly short for “here puss” – was a feral cat that Cote and his Maine Army National Guard 152nd Field Artillery Battalion spotted inside a Humvee tire in the mechanics area around the prison last July.

Toothless, tiny and emaciated, the cat was bottle-fed and weaned by the soldiers who were in Iraq for a one-year stint.

From July to January, HP dug a hole in the hearts of soldiers who just could not leave him behind.

It took weeks of bureaucratic legwork and a $700 fund-raising effort to bring HP to Caribou via a flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and a 23-hour round trip by car for Brenda and Ron Cote to bring HP to Caribou.

But it happened, and so Spc. Jesse Cote, 22, son of Brenda and Ron Cote, has a new pet.

Jesse Cote, a mechanic with the Maine unit, said he and his buddies were just sitting around in Iraq when something ran across the yard last July. They thought at first it was some kind of vermin, but on closer inspection they found a cat so small it fit inside two hands, even inside a military helmet.

They took the cat to their barracks, making a hole under a door so that HP could come and go as he pleased. HP became a first alarm for the men because he would run and hide at the first sign of mortar fire.

Jesse Cote said he started taking care of the cat, and soon soldiers from all over came to see him. That care included getting HP his shots and surgery for injuries he suffered in a fight with a feral cat at the base.

“We didn’t think it would live when we found it,” Jesse Cote said Saturday amid preparations by the family to celebrate a delayed Christmas now that the soldier was home with his family. “We bottle-fed it milk and later tuna and other food, and he stuck with us. He stayed with us and became a morale booster. He slept with the guys, curled up under the blankets. He did a lot for us, and we just could not leave him there.”

HP actually made it home before the soldiers and benefactors.

Cote and others drove the cat to Kuwait from Abu Ghraib, a 12-hour trip, and he was put on a KLM cargo plane on Jan. 20. He arrived in New York on Jan. 21. Two days later, Brenda and Ron Cote arrived in Caribou with HP.

Jesse Cote said $500 of the $705 needed to bring HP to Caribou was raised through the Web by a group called Military Mascots. Soldiers at Abu Ghraib raised the other $205.

“Some days it didn’t look like this was going to happen,” said Jesse Cote, who is on transitional leave after 15 months of active duty, 12 of them in Iraq.

The Cotes took HP to Bangor on Feb 13 to be reunited with Jesse and other soldiers in the 152nd.

Not only did the migrating cat play topsy-turvy with the Cote family’s lives, but the Army’s decision to allow Jesse Cote to come home when he did caused a change in the family’s holiday plans.

On Saturday, the Cote home on Town Line Road was decorated for Christmas, which the family decided to postpone until Jesse was back.

“WELCOME HOME 152” declared a large sign atop the big white house. “Welcome Home Soldier” was another sign atop a snowbank just ahead of the driveway. A tree in the middle of the snow-covered lawn held scores of yellow ribbons and multicolored Christmas tree balls.

A sleigh with Santa Claus and all kinds of gift boxes stood in the snow next to the front door, just off the porch.