Mortimer the Mouse

A paraphrase from Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story".

Mickey: I don't suppose you heard Paul Harvey with The Rest of the Story tonight, did you? He told the story of Eli, the all-but-destitute ad man and his friend Mortimer with whom he shared his meager lunch every day until his poverty forced him to turn Mortimer out...

Minnie: No, I didn't hear that. Was there more? (somehow feeling like I am missing the point here)

As the story goes...
Eli, it seems, was not cut out for the ad biz, gentle type that he was, and so ended up so poor that his clothes were literally falling apart, his shoes did the flap-flap thing, and everything. He couldn't afford to eat adequately--his entire lunch usually consisted of a small cheese sandwich to tide him over until his modest dinner. Even so, his heart went out to a poor little creature he named Mortimer--a little rodent who lived in his walk-up office. Over time and with much patience, he used his sandwiches to forge a bond of trust with the little critter.

Before long, it would even sleep in his palm. But it was not meant to last. Business got so bad that Eli ended up unable to afford even his cheese sandwiches. This was very bad for Mortimer, because below the walk-up was a restaurant, and the owner would bait his traps with the same kind of cheese that the sandwiches were made of. Eli couldn't risk his little friend being killed, so he decided to take him out to the woods and turn him loose. He did so, told him to be careful out there, and Mortimer was gone, presumably to live happily ever after.

Eli certainly did. A failure as an ad man, he turned his attention to another field, in which he was resoundingly successful. But Walter Elias Disney never forgot his friend Mortimer -- he immortalized him in film, though he did so not under his true name, but under the name his wife preferred for the little mouse, Mickey.