Judith Ione DeVault

Most obituaries start by giving the vital statistics of the deceased so I’ll do that here. Judy was born 7 May 1943 in Santa Monica, California. Her parents were Anthony Joseph and Ione Catherine (King) Vergilio. Judy died 7 Sep 2055 in Prescott, Arizona. In between she married Tracy DeVault (9 May 1964) and had two children: Kevin (16 Aug 1965) and Wendy (8 Jan 1969). Tracy and Judy went together for four years before they were married so all together they shared sixty-five wonderful years.

What I want to do here is talk a little about Judy’s other love. Over the years we had had a number of pets but Odie, our yellow tabby, was clearly her favorite.

Odie showed up on our doorstep in early 1977. He was a very young cat but not a new born. He looked like he had had a rough life. Judy brought him in, gave him some milk (which he ignored) and then sat him on the back of a sofa. Odie slept there for over twenty-four hours. When he began to move around Judy started to clean him up and noticed a wound on his side. I looked at it and discovered that he had been shot with a pellet gun. I dug the pellet out and put some antiseptic on the wound.

Over the years Judy and Odie became incredibly close. Most people think that their pets understand certain words.

Judy always said that Odie understood everything that she was saying. One day Judy walked out on our patio. This was back when we were still living in California. Odie was sitting on our neighbor’s roof. Judy realized that he was getting ready to jump to our patio roof, a distance of about ten feet. Judy told Odie to stay right where he was while she went into the house to get her camera. When she returned he was right where she left him. After getting the camera ready and positioned, she told Odie to go ahead and jump. He did as he was told and Judy took the photo to the right.

By 1999, Odie had lived with Judy and me for over twenty-two years. The last few years had taken their toll. When it became clear that he was suffering we had him put to sleep. We buried Odie in our back yard. Judy decided he was the last pet we would ever have. Now Judy and Odie are together again.