← All the cats PROFILE · 04 · THE EARLY DAYS

Wizard Howl.

Cautious, but reliably in the middle of whatever you were doing.

Fluffy pale cream cat with green eyes sprawled across a half-finished jigsaw puzzle
The puzzle was going well until this happened.
Pale cream cat peering down out of the round opening of a wooden cat-tree cubby
Overseeing operations from the penthouse.
Pale cream cat sitting inside an open instrument case, looking up at the camera
The case was open. That makes it furniture.
Two young ginger cats curled up asleep together on a paw-print blanket
Left, with Paradox, back at the beginning.
Pale cream kitten with green eyes gripping a small blue toy mouse on a sweater
Early fieldwork. The mouse did not survive the review.

Howl had a gift for choosing the exact spot you most needed, and settling into it completely.

A jigsaw puzzle half finished on the table. A book left open. The one warm patch of the rug. Wherever the day's activity was happening, that is where he lay down, at full length, with the serene confidence of a cat who has never been asked to move and does not expect to be.

Pale cream, extravagantly fluffy, with wide green eyes and a ruff that took up more room than he did. Gentle company, endlessly patient, and the softest thing in any room he was in.

The Name

Howl is named for Howl Pendragon, the beautiful and vain wizard from Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle. When Howl and Paradox arrived in the house, six-year-old Izzy declared the pale cream kitten the spitting image of her favorite character — elegant, soft, with eyes just as captivating. The two of them formed an immediate bond that lasted through the years, something tender and particular between a girl and her cat. The name stuck, and Howl grew into it beautifully, proving that a character known for vanity was, in his case, entirely justified.

Howl would jump at unexpected stuffed toys appearing next to him and was always afraid of the garbage bag and vacuum cleaner. For all his skittishness, he was the most adventurous of the two. He would jump out of a main floor window and explore, albeit briefly, the neighbor's yard. He would reach the neighbor's yard and come to a complete stop, unsure about what to do next.

YEARS
2007–2021
COAT
Pale cream, extravagantly fluffy
EYES
Wide and green
KNOWN FOR
Occupying whatever you were in the middle of
SIGNATURE MOVE
Full-length across an unfinished puzzle
FULL NAME
Wizard Howl
USUALLY WITH
Paradox
GALLERY
Wing 04 of the collection