DeVito's darlings

Celebrating the Valley's favorite residents.
By Pat Murphy.
Photo by Paulette Phlipot

While other dog owners use traditional vocabularies to chat with their pets, Rae DeVito speaks nary a word. She “talks” to hers with hands. All three—Frances, 9, a Dalmatian; Tommy, 7, and Jeremiah, 6, Australian sheep dogs—are deaf. Tommy also is blind. Using pats and pets to guide Tommy, and gyrating hand signals for the others, the petite DeVito, a physician’s widow, and her trio hike valley trails as vigorously as dogs without disabilities. So unique are DeVito and her pets, a Virginia author is working on a book about them. A woman of nimble wit, DeVito cites one distinct advantage of deaf dogs. When they misbehave, she says, “They can’t hear and I can vent.”

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