A Labrador for the LobbY
By Regan Michelle White

Guests of the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston will receive far more than a good night’s rest thanks to the addition of a 3-year-old black Lab, Catie Copley to the hotel staff. In her role as Canine Ambassador, Catie meets and greets guests, is available for scheduled walks and runs and acts as a community liaison.

Originally trained to be a guide dog by the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, Inc. in Smithtown, N.Y., Catie developed small cataracts. While this medical condition should not affect her life in any way, the safety of the guide dog user is always a top priority for the Guide Dog Foundation, so Catie has sniffed out a new career path.

Since October 2004, Catie Copley has been stationed near the St. James Avenue entrance to the hotel where she relaxes between walks in her dog bed and greets hotel guests with Director of Concierge Services and Catie Copley’s keeper, Jim Carey. Carey, a 27-year veteran of the Fairmont Copley Plaza was approached 8 months ago as the perfect partner for Catie. It has changed his job and life forever. “She is with me every day that I am here. She goes with me wherever I go,” he says. “She’s wonderful. For 27 years now I’ve been working here on my own; to have her here with me is just wonderful.”

Local Bostonians seem to agree. Carey used to drive into work, however with the Democratic National Convention in Boston this past year Catie and Carey were forced to take the subway into work for a few days. He says, “It turned out so well, we now take the subway every day. Everyone seems to know her – from storekeepers to morning commuters. People offer her seats on the subway in the morning. Complete strangers come up to me when I am walking her and ask if she is Catie Copley of the Fairmont. I have no idea how they know it’s her; there are a lot of black Labs out there.”

There are not many black Labs with job responsibility like Catie’s, however. The concierge staff maintains an appointment book where guests can schedule walks and runs with her. Catie is available for four walks a day and gets a healthy two-hour siesta in the middle of her shift. Guests taking Catie out receive a walk packet that includes a booklet highlighting her favorite Bostonian routes, commands that she knows and a biscuit for a walk well done. She attends hotel meetings and next week will broaden the scope of her ambassador position, as she will be going on a number of sales calls. In response to Catie’s huge career success, she also has her own business cards and e-mail address: (www.Catie.Copley@fairmont.com.)

Carey marvels at her disposition and the way she has taken a shining to the job. “She sits so quietly in the lobby. She knows her post and exactly where to sit. No one can believe how quiet and behaved she is. And yet when I give her the command to play and run around she knows exactly what to do. She definitely knows what her job is here.”

Everyone warms up to Catie, which has certainly made Carey’s job a lot easier. He says, “She really helps me at the desk. People that normally maybe wouldn’t have come up to me to ask me questions now aren’t as shy about approaching. I’ll introduce them to Catie and tell them her story and maybe I can help them during their stay in the area. It’s an icebreaker.”

At the end of each day, Catie and Carey return home to their family in Malden: wife, Sylvie, and three boys, sixteen-year-old James III and four-year-old twins Brenden and Michaël. Carey laughs about his family’s affection for Catie saying, “They love her but now when they come and visit me at the hotel they don’t like other people paying so much attention to her. I think they get a little jealous because she’s our dog but she also has a job to do.” Perhaps in unconscious deference to Catie’s professional duties, Carey’s children always call her “Catie Copley” in full while Jim just calls her “Catie”.

The Careys certainly aren’t strangers to pets in the house, either. Catie shares the Carey animal kingdom with a 12-year-old Great Pyrenees, Nuky, a cat and a macaw named Romeo. Jim adds that he’s, “always had dogs, but I’ve never had a Lab before. They are such wonderful dogs; so smart, always asking “what can I do for you now?” The appearance of Catie and Great Pyrenees, Nuky walking together has also caused quite a commotion on the streets of Boston. “Cars will stop and pull over at the sight of them,” Carey says.

Carey suspects that it is this special something that attracts hotel visitors to Catie and keeps them coming back. He says, “Maybe it’s her training as a guide dog and perhaps her nature too, but I don’t know, there’s just something special about her. She really brings a lot of joy to everyone that passes by.” With a chuckle he adds, “I used to think I was popular with the name Jim Carey. Catie’s popularity just keeps snowballing. She’s certainly more popular than anyone else here in the hotel right now.”

Carey and Catie extend a warm invitation to anyone visiting the Boston area to stop into the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel and say hello, join Catie for a walk and maybe stay a while. They’d love to see you.

For more information about the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, visit www.fairmont.com/copleyplaza,
or call 800-441-1414, 617-267-5300.

The Canine Ambassador program which began in 2001 at the Fairmont’s Hotel Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada is also available at several other sites. (www.fairmont.com)

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