But you needn’t try to make us believe you can chloroform a cat,” laughed Anne. “It was all the fault of the knothole,” protested Phil. “It was a good thing the knothole was there,” said Aunt Jamesina rather severely. “Kittens HAVE to be drowned, I admit, or the world would be overrun. But no decent, grown-up cat should be done to death – unless he sucks eggs.