But this puzzle; every piece almost fits even if it doesn’t. When a remaining spot has pieces on three or four sides, but none of the ones remaining fit, it’s time to re-examine our “progress” and find the piece that fooled us. We’ve been through that cycle several times already.
When all the shuffling is done, we’ll have the final tally of how many pieces the puppy actually ate. We know it’s a number larger than zero.