Putting your foot in it alone

Once upon a time there was a chap, who after a bitter divorce, became very lonely and so he went to the pet store and told the owner he wanted an unusual pet to keep him company.
After much discussion, he decided on a centipede, which he immediately named Carl. It came with a little white box which could be used as its house.
He took the box home and found a good location for it, and decided that he would start off by taking his new friend to the pub to have a drink. So he peeked into the opening on the box and said "Hey Carl, would you like to nip down to the pub for a beer?"
There was, however, no reply, and that bothered the chap a bit. A few minutes later he asked again and said "Hey, how about going down to the pub with me for a beer?" But again there was no answer from his new friend. So he waited ten more minutes thinking about the situation and then decided to ask one more time.
He put his mouth up to the opening in the white box and shouted "Hey, you in there, would you like to go to the pub place and have a drink with `
At this, a little voice came out of the box and said "No need to shout, hang on a minute, I heard you the first time. I'm putting on my shoes!"