A DIFFERENT KIND OF ARMY VET MAJOR TENDED MILITARY K-9S BY DAY, STOWAWAY KITTENS BY NIGHT.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY

For the past year, Andrea Mullen devoted her days as an Army veterinarian in Kosovo to keeping military dogs healthy and on the job sniffing out explosives.

At night, though, the local vet gave her heart to a pair of sick kittens named Bill and Hillary -- kittens she hid on her Army base while she nursed them back to health.

There are many stories of heartbreak and tragedy in war, and then there are the stories that make you want to smile and cheer.

That would be the story of Mullen and the Clintons.

A little history first. In Kosovo, which is predominantly Albanian, President Clinton is considered a hero for having the United States take a lead role with NATO forces in 1999 to stop Serbs from driving out Albanians to ethnically cleanse the country.

One of the main highways in the country named Bill Clinton Boulevard, and there's a Clinton Coral Restaurant. There's even a Hillary Restaurant.

So when Army Reserve veterinarian Maj. Mullen was visiting the handful of animal shelters in Kosovo -- offering to help the few, undertrained local vets -- she was introduced to a pair of sick kittens.

``I fell in love with them right off, but I knew they would die unless they got a lot better care,'' said Mullen, who returned from Kosovo last week to resume her mobile veterinarian practice in Van Nuys.

So she had a choice to make: She could leave these cute, sick kittens she nicknamed Bill and Hillary at the shelter -- and try to return as often as she could to help them -- or she could sneak them onto Camp Bondsteel, her Army base in Kosovo, where she could nurse them back to health every night.

She knew she would be breaking military rules, but what the heck, some military rules just beg to be broken.

The U.S. Army and NATO prohibit soldiers from having on-duty pets, and, technically, Bill and Hillary -- who look nothing like German shepherd sentry and bomb-sniffing dogs -- would be pets.

``It's a stupid rule that needs to be changed,'' Mullen said. ``The military is worried about possible diseases from private pets, and that it would be just one more thing to worry about.

``But the morale boost it would give soldiers who have pets at home and miss them deeply would be tremendous.

``Pets would help bring a little normalcy to lives which are anything but normal over there.''

With the help of a small group on base calling itself the ``Underground of Soldier Animal Lovers,'' Bill and Hillary were snuck past the guards at the front gate.

As the only military veterinarian in Kosovo, Mullen had caught a break. Working with animals, not humans, her job wasn't considered high-priority, and she could fly under the radar of Army brass.

``They put the veterinarian hospital on the outskirts of the base, right next to mortuary affairs,'' she said. ``Since we were not in the main part of the base, it was easier to hide them.''

So by day, Mullen went about her business of making sure none of the military's sentry and bomb-sniffing dogs got head colds, eye infections or ticks.

By night, she nursed Bill and Hillary back to health.

``You could tell they were in love,'' Andrea said.

Even spayed and neutered, they couldn't keep their paws off each other.

Word began to spread through the pet lovers' underground that there were two cute kittens hiding out in the vet hospital who didn't mind a little attention.

Just about every night, there would be a knock on Mullen's door, and some soldiers would be standing there wanting to spend time with Bill and Hillary.

And that's the way life passed for more than six months at Camp Bondsteel, until Mullen got word last month that she would be going home before Christmas.

She let out a happy yell, and then reality hit.

Sure she wanted to go home and begin her private practice again, but what about Bill and Hillary? She couldn't leave them behind.

``I knew the chances of anyone adopting them over there were nil and that left on their own they would probably be killed,'' she said.

Andrea knew that because she had to euthanize many sick, stray cats herself, a part of the job she loathed and hated.

No, she told her friends in the animal lovers' underground, Bill and Hillary would just have to come home with her. But how? As stowaways?

``I became obsessed with getting them out,'' she said. ``I begged everyone to help me. There had to be a way.''

There was, but you don't rat on friends. Let's just say that somehow Bill and Hillary found themselves on a cargo plane one night headed for Switzerland.

Thirty-six hours later, they were landing at LAX, where Nancy Smith -- Mullen's friend and business partner in the California Cat Center, a cat boarding facility in Van Nuys -- was waiting for them to clear customs.

And on Tuesday, Army Reserve veterinarian Maj. Andrea Mullen returned home to the Valley, where a couple of her old friends from Kosovo waited to greet her.

Bill and Hillary Clinton.

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) Retired Army Reserve veterinarian Maj. Andrea Mullen holds Hillary and Bill Clinton, sick cats she adopted and nursed to health while serving in Kosovo. Below, Mullens speaks to Kosovo villagers about their animals. She served there as a veterinarian charged with keeping military dogs healthy and on the job sniffing out explosives.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer