Puzzling Through It

I recently bought a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle because... well, I was at Target, and I remembered that over a decade ago I used to enjoy doing puzzles although I haven't done one since then.

Now I remember why I stopped doing jigsaw puzzles.

Here are the indignities that this particular puzzle has suffered thus far:

1) Scooter peed on one of the pieces. (I know Scooter pees on everything, so this isn't too surprising, but there actually were extenuating circumstances in this case.)

2) The cats enjoy picking out pieces from the box and carrying them around the house. I'm not sure how many of the original 2000 are still in the living room.

3) Molly Speedbump chewed up one (or possibly more, I can't tell) piece and spit it out on the floor next to me.

 

(It's like the blank Scrabble tile -- it can fit anywhere. 

One of my friends pointed out that you get no points for the blank Scrabble tile...)

To be honest this puzzle had a few problems from the start. Even though it clearly states the dimensions on the outside of the box (38.5" x 26.5"), I was convinced that it would fit on the keyboard tray of my table which turns out to be 19" deep.  Guess what? It doesn't fit. Shocking, how the laws of physics apply. I had to find something to put it on and the only thing I could find was the old interior door out in the garage. So I brought that in and stacked it on some old cubes that were also out in the garage. At some point in the last ten years, one or more of the cats (not mine) that hangs out in my garage had sprayed one of the cubes and although I washed it out pretty well, I think that was Scooter's excuse.

The other big problem is that this puzzle is just not very well-made. I thought I was just remembering things incorrectly until Jon asked me about it. I started complaining about missing the little "snick" that you get when putting pieces together, and he suggested that I go with a different manufacturer. Aside from missing the tactile reward, it also means that I can't be sure that anything is really in the correct spot because pieces seem to almost fit and sometimes it's right and sometimes it's not, and there's a lot of blue sky and green forest in this puzzle.

Also, for whatever reason this has become Scooter's favorite place to nap, which means I have to disturb him any time I want to work on it. These images were taken on different days, and it's not like I had to sit and wait for the perfect photo op...

 

(There's a fireplace screen protecting the pieces from being pilfered.)

  

(Look, he's not always sleeping.)

Anyhow, at this point I'm just trying to finish it so I can put it in the recycling bin...