March 23, 2026

Pooli, Born on the 4th of July

A WWII ship’s cat who served aboard the USS Fremont, crossed the Pacific, and earned her own service ribbons alongside the crew.

Pooli the cat was born on the 4th of July, 1944, at Pearl Harbor, which is about as strong an opening statement as any cat could ask for.

Pooli the cat found her way aboard the USS Fremont, a US Coast Guard–crewed attack transport operating in the Pacific. Like many wartime mascots, Pooli did not arrive with a job description. She was brought aboard by a crewman, given a name Pooli, short for Princess Papule, and allowed to settle into ship life, which she did with remarkable confidence. And she quickly became part of the crew.

During battle stations, when alarms rang and men moved to their posts, Pooli had her own routine. She headed straight for the mailroom, climbed into a canvas mail sack, and stayed there until the noise passed. It was effective, and it worked every time.

Between battles, she held her ground. Pooli defended her territory against any animal that wandered too close and, according to the crew, never lost a fight.

She crossed the Pacific with the ship, including major operations such as the battle for Iwo Jima. Like the sailors around her, she endured long stretches at sea, sudden bursts of action, and the strange in-between rhythm that defined life aboard a wartime vessel.

At some point along the journey, Pooli also crossed the equator with the crew, taking part at least in spirit, in the long-standing naval tradition that transforms first-time sailors, known as “polliwogs,” into “shellbacks.” It’s unclear how seriously she took the ceremony, but she was there, and that counted.

Over time, Pooli was given a small uniform and, more unusually, her own set of decorations. By the end of the war, she had earned 3 service ribbons and 4 battle stars, a record that mirrored the experience of the people she lived alongside.

Her closest call, however, did not come during combat. When the ship prepared to dock in San Francisco, there were concerns that a cat on board might trigger quarantine restrictions. At one point, there was even talk of throwing her overboard to avoid complications. Instead, the crew did what crews often do for their own: they assigned a guard to watch her around the clock and made sure she stayed.

Pooli made it ashore. She went on to live a long life, eventually celebrating her 15th birthday in 1959. By then, she could still fit into her uniform, posing calmly for photographs with the ribbons she had collected years earlier.

She never manned a gun or gave an order. But she crossed the Pacific, stayed with her crew through the hardest parts of the war, and came home with them.

For Pooli, that was more than enough.

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