9 Products That Delighted Us Last Week: From Dog Treats to Do-It-All Dongles

“I could just tell they were going to work. And I was right: They are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn. Sometimes when I’m walking around in them, I’ll look down and be tickled by how they make my feet look like small but hefty loaves of bread,” Liang wrote about these fleece-lined Merrells that she loves so much she bought two pairs — and wrote a haiku to them. “Ode to these Merrells / How you hug my feet so sweet / Safe “Wonder Bread” shoes.”

When this bag of dog treats made from crickets arrived at Strategist HQ, writer and dog mom Liza Corsillo was dubious. “I don’t know if I would ever have bought dog treats made out of crickets,” she said, “but Uli [her toy poodle] was immediately smitten, so much so that I’ve bought three more bags in the three months since.” Corsillo shared the made-from-bugs bites — which she notes are “higher in protein and more nutrient dense than beef or chicken treats” — with two other Strategist dog moms, who reported their pooches were similarly delighted.

An easier — often far less expensive — way to upgrade your old mattress without buying a new one is to throw a mattress topper on it (a hack even Brad Pitt swears by). When we spoke to experts about the best toppers, they recommended 17 of them, many of which are made from memory foam; one expert said this is the most popular material because “it adds comfort and relieves pressure.” Not only does this affordable memory-foam topper have “five body zones that provide extra pressure relief in certain areas to help level you out across the mattress and maximize comfort,” according to another expert, “Lucid infused this topper with lavender to … provide a fresh-smelling mattress for many months to come.”

From our list of the 37 best housewarming gifts according to homeowners and renters comes this quite sleek-looking pitcher with a built-in water filter. Kelly Zutrau, the lead singer and songwriter for the band Wet, told us she gifted it to herself after moving into a place with old pipes and mucky water. “Its two different filters make the water taste very clean,” she said. “And its sleek chamber fits perfectly on the top shelf of my fridge.” Shown here in glass, this pitcher is also available in a less expensive plastic version for $40 on Amazon.

The Live With Kelly and Ryan co-host described this as a “non-fragrance,” telling us that the unisex scent she can’t live without “smells like clean soap. When I put it on, people will say, ‘You smell so good, like you just got out of the shower.’” Apparently, Ripa is not the only celeb who loves it: “I think one of the Mara girls wore it on my show years ago. I think it was Rooney. It smelled so good, so I bought it.”

Just when we thought we knew most everything there is to know about Roomba’s robot vacuums, this Amazon reviewer offered a totally new-to-us appeal: “You haven’t quite lived until you’re drunk enough to follow the Roomba all over your small studio apartment feeding it Cocoa Krispies and getting giddy when it finally cycles around to catch it.” The gadget took the title of best entry-level robot vacuum in our roundup of the top-rated ones on Amazon. While it’s not smart (it doesn’t connect to your phone), it also isn’t dumb, according to another user, who notes that it has a “‘Dock’ button, if you want to send it back to its charging station early.”

Away’s newly released alpine-inspired luggage, we wrote in last week’s “Don’t Dillydally,” is “further proof that the Street Ski trend is a thing.” The red-and-white piece reminds us of all the cool merch from the newish TWA Hotel, plus it’s a limited edition: two reasons we think savvy travelers will snap up this luggage fast.

“It has your standard male USB plug on one end. At the other are Lightning (for anything Apple), Micro USB (for most Android phones and other accessories like tablets and point-and-shoot cameras), and USB-C (used by the latest MacBooks and quickly becoming the new standard),” according to contributor Matt Goulet, who told us this single cable has replaced the 30 or so that once occupied his junk drawer. And it’s not only handy at home: “The Ultra has accompanied me to Machu Picchu, for paddleboarding along the coast of Maine, and on multiple visits to see family in Detroit.”