'Mom was unhappy about me living all alone in a little apartment on 104th Street .... She was lonely without me .... She didn't know I had Joe Guy on the string then and I didn't tell her ..... I tried to tell Mama she had the dog, Rajah Ravoy, to take care of her. Rajah was a skinny run-down mutt when Dr Carrington, a West Indian doctor friend of mine, had brought him to me to take care of ... I didn't have time to take care of him so I took him to Mom.

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Sometimes when I was working at Café Society I used to take him to work with me .... This dog was amazing, he was so smart. In the morning Mom would leave the Bronx and take the bus to 99th Street and Columbus to open her restaurant. Rajah would stand by until she got on the bus, then he'd take off. When she got to the restaurant, there he was, waiting at the door to be fed.

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Sometimes he would bark and raise hell and try to keep Mom from going to work in the morning. She knew he was trying to tell her she shouldn't open up that day. And that dog knew what he was doing. She'd stay home and, sure enough, the Board of

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Rajah would go off by himself without any damn leash and go in Central Park lake to take a bath. The cops and the SPCA people would try to catch him, but he could outwit them any time and come highballing to the apartment, up the stairs. He could do everything, almost ring the bell. He could even make it all the way from the Bronx to my place on 104th Street. We could have thrown away our telephones, Mom and me. With Rajah we didn't need them. Mom loved that dog. And the day he died Mom said he was all she had to live for and she wouldn't last long after. And she was so right.

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After Joe Guy and I had been together a while we tied up professionally too. We decided I would have my own band and Joe would be the leader ......'

 

From Lady Sings The Blues by Billie Holiday with William Dufty

 

Billie Holiday went on to have other dogs. She had a coat-pocket poodle, a beagle, Chihuahuas, a Great Dane, and more, but her favourite was a boxer named Mister. Amy Novesky's book Mister And Lady Day describes Billie's relationships with the various dogs in her life. The book is illustrated by Vaness Newton and this is one of the illustrations. 

 

"By highlighting Lady Day's affectionate relationship with Mister, Novesky and Newton invite readers to admire the illustrious singer in a sparkling new light." - Kirkus