“Eli”
and his companion were traveling down a country road in Eli’s old, run-down car
when they came upon the edge of a woods.
Eli stopped the car, slowly got out, and walked behind the car over to
the passenger side. He quietly opened
the door, gently scooped up his little rider, and carried him to the woods
where he set the tiny creature down beside a pile of leaves. “Good-bye, my little friend. I’m sorry, but I
can no longer afford to feed you. I can
barely take care of myself. You’ll be
safe here.” With that, Eli got back in
his car and drove away.
Eli
was a young and poor advertising man who rented a dirty, beat up, second story
office above a dilapidated, old grocery store.
One day while eating his lunch, which usually consisted of a cheese
sandwich, at his desk, he noticed a tiny pair of eyes peering at him through a
crack in the wall. “What? Do you want to
share lunch with me?” Eli broke off a
small bit of cheese and placed it on the floor beside the crack. In a few moments, a tiny gray mouse appeared,
snatched up the cheese and ran back into the wall.
This
soon became a lunchtime ritual, with Eli gradually placing the cheese farther
and farther from the wall, and closer to his desk. One day the little mouse came all the way
over to the desk, crawled right up on top, and took the little piece of cheese from
Eli’s hand. After a few days, he even
crawled into the palm of Eli’s hand.
Eeeek! (Sorry that was me!)
They
became such good friends that Eli even built a little bed in one of his desk
drawers for the mouse.
But,
sadly, their friendship could not last forever.
Eli’s business was not very successful, and as the months passed that
became very evident. The sleeves of his
shirts became tattered, his pants threadbare, and Eli himself had taken on a
gaunt, pale appearance. He could no
longer even afford the cheese for his small friend. Afraid that the little mouse might wander down
into the grocery store looking for food and meet a grim demise, Eli made the
decision that begat the fated journey to the woods.
Seasons
passed, and life took a turn for the better for Eli. He had moved up to better jobs, and he had
even gotten married. At this time, he
found himself in the animation business, and was working on a new cartoon.
Eli
never forgot the little mouse that befriended him, and decided to name the
title character “Mortimer,” as a memorial to him. But, his new wife hated that name. So “Eli,” Walter Elias Disney, being a good
and smart husband, changed the name of his little character to “Mickey.” “And now you know the rest of the
story.” Now that’s a mouse even I can
like!
Be
kind to animals. They will repay you a
million times. Or, as in the case of
Mortimer, maybe even more. Although, we
don’t recommend that you leave your little friends in the woods.
My
wife and I came to this area nearly twenty years ago. I wanted to come here, in part, because the
little towns around here reminded me of Walt Disney towns---real, all-American
towns full of good, hard-working people.
After being here all these years, I now know that life is not always
“Disney-esque,” but it’s pretty darn close.
Thank you to all who have made us feel welcome.
We
have had a lot of clients over the years who have given excellent care to their
pets and farm animals. On behalf of all
of our animal friends, I thank you.
Thank
you also to Dr. Ed Laman and Dr. Ron McNutt for giving us our first jobs and
great starts on our careers. And, thank
you to my good friend and neighbor, Tom Hiett, for making me think this was all
possible.
P.S.
Thank you to all who had kind words for my last column about soldiers,
especially those of you who have served our country. I really appreciated it. Also, thank you to all who told me your
favorite, scary rat stories after my Rodentophobia column…I really appreciated
the extra nightmares! And, I even
received a “rat cake.” Thank you,
Holly! “Good-day!”
Author: Dr. John Jones
Image courtesy of Karen Shaw at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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