You've Got to Be Kitten Me

Our family is growing! Rand, Max, Mitzi and I have welcomed a little redhead to our family. Meet Simon Garfunkel Eckhardt.

Isn't he perfect?

He was born in our garage to one of the regular stray cats that hangs around our neighborhood. We had seen him, his mother, and his sibling hanging out in our yard a lot, and Rand instantly fell in love with him. He began trying to catch him before he got too old, and failed several times, but one night about two weeks ago, we managed to scoop him up and bring him inside. He was MAD.

He screamed and cried at first, and for a moment I worried we had made a big mistake bringing in an almost feral kitten, but within 24 hours he was already warming up to us. Now, after two weeks, he is a total love-cat. He's also the tootiest cat I've ever met.  I mean he toots a lot.

His purr is even louder than Max's. And all he ever wants to do is play. He's kind of wearing me out, but I love him. The big cats are being very good babies by tolerating him politely. They're not ready to be best friends yet, though.

This is the first time we've added a family member in eight years, and it's been a big adjustment. But now I'm convinced I need a house full of cats.

Cheers to many years with this little furball!

{Oskar and Klaus} Gifts for Kitties

Is anyone else like me, in that you feel the need to shower your cats with gifts and love, just to thank them for existing? Anyone?

My two little cats are seriously the light of my life. Yes, I adore my husband, but even he sometimes laughs at me when I do something stupid or is too busy to pay attention to me. However, with my kitties, no matter what I say, or how I look, or how I feel, there is never any judgement. Aren't animals the BEST?!

I think so.

Not sure if I mentioned this. My trip to NYC this summer included a celebrity encounter.

I know. I KNOW. I met Grumpy Cat. It was awful. :)

Also there was Oscar the Blind Cat (pictured above). I hadn't heard of him until that day, which is why I didn't spend that panicked moment after waiting an hour in line trying to get my picture with him. I was a little more interested in that girl cat.

Since that day, though, I've learned a bit about Oscar and his buddy Klaus, and I'm so excited to share my discoveries with you. They have a shop full of the cutest kitteh gear ever. You can read more about these cuties here, but let's talk cat products, mkay? I've gathered up a few of my favorites from their online store. It's just about time to start thinking about Christmas shopping, you know! What's on your pet's wish list this year?

Seriously, Oscar. STOP IT. It's just too much cuteness.

{All images are from Oskar & Klaus's online shop. This is not a sponsored post. I just love their products and I'm willing to tell everyone I know for free!)

A Dramatic Scooter Story

I spent all last weekend stewing and moping about how awful the world can be. Rand and I had just experienced our first theft, and it stung, man.

We've never had anything stolen before. That's something I've always been very proud to say about our neighborhood. People would say things like, "You live on the north side? Eww, bet you can't wait to move." (No joke, people really say that.) And I could reply with, "Actually, it's a nice place to live. People are friendly, and I feel safe, and we've never had anything stolen or bothered!"

Not anymore. Now the jerks are right.

Early Friday morning, I left for work, and as always, I mentally noted where the scooter was so I wouldn't hit it with my car door. By the time Rand needed to go to work, it was gone. Someone had come into our backyard in the early morning, broken the lock position on the scooter's handles, and rolled it away.

Having something stolen really sucks. Having someone trespass into my own yard and steal something while one of us is home makes my skin crawl.

So we moped, cried, whined, and consoled each other all weekend. We filed a police report, and wandered around the neighborhood with the clicker hoping we could set off the alarm and hear it. No luck. In fact, we became convinced we would never see it again, so we decided to just make the best of things. Thanks to Dave Ramsey, we always have a little money stashed away for emergencies, so we decided to use it.

WE BOUGHT A NEW ONE!

Isn't it beautiful?! We bought it on Monday, and it felt so good to be able to recover from that whole thing and take a scooter ride Monday night. Plus, I think this one is prettier than the old one, anyway. We even splurged and bought us both new helmets. No more wearing a bicycle helmet on the scooter for me!

THEN....

On Tuesday afternoon Rand got a call at work that the Springfield Police had found his stolen scooter!! Georgie, this is drama! (Line from Ed Wood...anybody?)

Some guy had been trying to hot wire it in an alley when an old man walked up and the guy took off. The police were able to identify it from the police report and Rand's MSU parking sticker. As you can see, they were able to do some damage, but we think we're looking at less than $100 in repairs.

AND WE HAVE TWO SCOOTERS!!! We can go for rides together!

Obviously, I get the new one.

And you can bet those things are secured like Fort Knox now.