You'll still be here when I get out?

I got quite a surprise this morning. I came downstairs, fed the cats, went to switch on the pc ….. and found a millipede sitting on the keyboard, eating half a tomato.

Ok, so it was in a clear box, but it’s still not quite what I expect at 6.20 in the morning.

Under the box was a sheet of paper bearing the name ‘Captain Hilts’.

Having now found out exactly what happened last night, I agree that this is the perfect name for our previously un-named millipede. I’m also aware that the surprise I got this morning wasn’t nearly as big as the one Luc got last night.

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Now for a bit of background. In the corner of the living room is a glass tank with a two-part sliding (and lockable) glass lid, over which is a second metal lid. Living in the tank are four green anole lizards, three geckos and around half a dozen millipedes ranging in size from about 3 cm to around 25 cm. The theory is that, with the glass (which millipedes aren’t supposed to be able to climb) and double lid, none of them can get out. For which, I must admit, I’m moderately grateful.

A couple of weeks back, Luc found one of the smaller millipedes between the two lids. A check of the tank showed that there was a very small gap in one corner of the glass lid where the heater cable goes through, so he sealed that up with silicone.

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Last night, before I went to bed, one of the two cats came in (well, she had been outside a full five minutes), but the other one was enjoying himself in the cold too much, so I asked Luc to call him in before he came up.

So, in due course, Luc opened our front door, went down to the main porch and coaxed Dyson in. They both came back upstairs to our front door, which Luc pushed open …. to find a millipede about ten cm from the door. It hadn’t been there when he went out three minutes earlier.

We can’t work out if the millipede escaped before Luc sealed the gap and has been slowly making its way to the front door for two weeks, or whether it escaped despite the gap being sealed. In either case, it perked up once it was given some water, and was happily chomping half a tomato when I came downstairs this morning.

It’s going to stay in its own small lidded box (with earth, water, heat and food) until it’s too big to get through any small gaps that might still exist.

Which is why it’s been named after ‘The Cooler King’.

Dialogue from ‘The Great Escape’:

Von Luger: Are all American officers so ill-mannered?
Hilts: Yeah, about 99 percent.
Von Luger: Then perhaps while you are with us you will have a chance to learn some. Ten days isolation, Hilts.
Hilts: CAPTAIN Hilts.
Von Luger: Twenty days.
Hilts: Right. Oh, uh, you'll still be here when I get out?
Von Luger: [visibly annoyed] Cooler!