I also could delve into the reasons why doing jigsaw puzzles can become an obsession. One friend calls them a pointless waste of time because you spend so much time doing them only just to take them apart. But this story is about how our cats have reacted to this new activity. In earlier years when I did puzzles, the family had dogs. And they didn't care what I was doing at the dining room table unless I happened to be eating and they could induce me into sharing.
Cats are different.
They believe it is their duty to check out anything that changes in the household, comment on it and get involved. So dumping pieces of a jigsaw puzzle on their table in their dining room drew their immediate attention. But cats being cats, they have a tendency to ignore human dictates. Pieces were found on the floor or disappeared completely, sections that have been worked on suddenly are no longer completed. Eliza, it appears, catnaps on the puzzles during the day.