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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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