I love board games and always have. My family regularly plays games, and thankfully my cats don’t jump on our table, because they’d be all over the plastic pieces, dice, and cards. Same goes for puzzles, which sometimes are a bigger cat-magnet. I used to have a giant board on which my kids and I would assemble jigsaw puzzles on the floor. The board became a cat bed, of course. The stakes are a little higher when the cats start swatting puzzle pieces — ending a puzzle with one missing piece makes me absolutely insane.
Here are eight cats who didn’t get the memo about staying away from their humans’ puzzles and games.
1. “Small pieces! Dice!”
Apparently this game is called History of the World, and the cat looks extremely interested in learning something … or perhaps has her eye on taking a swat somewhere in Canada. And those dice sitting right in from of kitty? Now that’s just asking for trouble.
2. “Nice try, humans”
The silly humans who are putting this puzzle together thinks a folded paper bag will dissuade kitty from getting his paws on the project. Wrong. Cats love plopping their butts on top of anything, and the bag is an attractive, open invitation. And sure, maybe kitty won’t mess up the assembled part of the puzzle hiding under the bag; however, there are more than a few opportunities to swat tiny pieces onto the floor, behind the sofa, or under the refrigerator. Nice try, humans.
3. “Go to the bathroom, I’ll take your turn”
This kitty has decided to take a turn in this Clue 2 game. I’ve never even heard of Clue 2, but can only assume these people are playing it because the cat lost all the pieces from the original Clue game.
4. “Thanks for the new bed”
Your first mistake: leaving an open box accessible to a cat. Kitty doesn’t care that it’s housing the pieces you need for your precious puzzle, because what’s more important than the cat-box relationship? Unless you answered “nothing,” then you’re dead wrong. My cat told me.
5. “But I’m litter-ary”
Cats enjoy our reading time because they get to plop on top of our reading materials. “Look at me! I’m far more interesting than that book!” It makes total sense then that a cat would want to jack the top of a Bookopoly game. Because games. And books.
6. “Hey, get up here!”
One cat with his eyes on a puzzle is trouble — two cats are a guarantee you’ll finish with at least 10 percent of the pieces missing. Cats in cahoots are always a recipe for pumped-up shenanigans.
7. “I’m a real-estate mogul”
I stopped playing Monopoly a long time ago because it just takes too long, I become impatient, and there are so many pieces! Between the metal figures, money, and cards, it takes almost as long to set it up as it does to play the darn thing. The cat doesn’t care if we play or not — he just wants us to set it up.
8. “I got another straight”
Cards! Chips! Cats love some poker. The colorful chips are the perfect cat toy, and what fun it is to slide the cards across the table! Cats almost always get a straight when they play poker with humans … a trip straight to the other room.
Do your cats sabotage your puzzles and games? Tell us in the comments!
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- What Happens When My Cats Tell Me What to Wear
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- Do You Ever Wish You’d Given Your Cat a Different Name?
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- 3 Ways You and Your Kids Can Help Big Cats
About the Author: Angie Bailey is an eternal optimist with an adoration of all things silly. Loves pre-adolescent boy humor, puns, making up parody songs, thinking about cats doing people things and The Smiths. Writes Catladyland, a cat humor blog, Texts from Mittens (birthed right here on Catster) and authored whiskerslist: the kitty classifieds, a silly book about cats wheeling and dealing online. Partner in a production company and writes and acts in comedy web series that features sketches and mockumentaries. Mother to two humans and three cats, all of which want her to make them food.
