Built in a kitchen,
not a boardroom.

I didn't plan to start a dog food company. I planned to save dogs.

For eleven years, I've been doing rescue work across Cape Town — taxi ranks, streets, shelters, places most people don't look twice. Six years ago that work became the Howlelujah Foundation. And somewhere along the way, I became obsessed with one question: what happens after the rescue?

Getting a dog off the street is one thing. Giving them a long, healthy life is another.

That obsession built Howl's.

I live with four senior rescue dogs. Each one taught me something different about what dogs actually need.

Zara came first, during my learning years. I didn't know then what I know now — I sterilised her too early, didn't manage her joints from a young age, made the mistakes that well-meaning people make when they love a dog but don't yet have the knowledge to match. Now she's ten, and every day I'm working to give her back what I didn't protect early enough. Zara is why I became obsessed with longevity. She's why this company exists.

Bowie arrived broken and became unbreakable. He's proof that the body can heal when you give it what it needs.

Tessa I met at a taxi rank. We were there for her seven puppies. She had other ideas. In the chaos of that moment, she looked at me, walked over, and didn't leave. Just like that, she decided she was ours. I've never questioned it since.

And then there's Bruno. I've known him for six years. He had a family once, then lost them, then lost everything — passed around until he ended up on the streets. Every week we found him. Every week we fed him. Then one week something was wrong. He'd started out brown and white, full of colour. Now he was fading — coat bleached out, body wasting away. We rushed him to the vet. Ehrlichiosis — a tick-borne disease that had been quietly destroying him from the inside. He came home with me six months ago. Today, Bruno is full of food, full of love, and his colour is coming back.

Bruno is why the Elixir exists. Zara is why I became obsessed with joints and longevity. Tessa is why I believe a dog will tell you when they've found their home. And Bowie — Bowie is proof that it's never too late.

Howl's was built in a kitchen, not a boardroom. It was built for dogs like mine — dogs who deserve more than survival. Dogs who deserve to thrive.

Every meal we make is a second chance.