He is settling in with Diva and Jones, which is of course the biggest hurdle. Jones is not keen on Beagie being around while Jones himself being petted by Moira. Diva is a Lady, and is quite happy to play with "the "puppy". He is of course a mere male. But otherwise, apart from the occasional warning, Beagie is now part of the family.
For those interested in such things, his photo can be seen at http://www.fast.co.za/~stockton/handler.html You can also see Diva Looking Beautiful in her latest show ribbons and Jones doing his impression of Obiwan Kenobi, Wise Sage and Jedi Knight.
Beagie could get to be spelled BeeGee, because that's how we pronounce it. Any resemblance to the hangdog, long-eared looks of the Brothers Gibb is purely coincidental.
We discover he has a voice. Large, in fact. And Beagie is now convinced that he is a Big Dog. What with Diva's ladylike Woof, Jones' stentorian Bellow and Beagies Bugle, the ungodly stand no chance of passing undetected.
Along with other intelligent lifeforms on the planet this establishment is owned and ruled by a Cat. We are not absolutely sure what Smokey really thinks of all this. No chance that he should be discommoded by any mere canine. He treats us all with the disdain reserved for the lower orders. But he has voiced no specific objection.
At last, after much scratching about I have found some basic information on Euro. Banks must be able to operate in Euro currency by 1999-01-01. Coins and notes will be issued by 2002-01-01. So the deadline for euro systems are real. The countdown is running, t-333 Today.
But there is still not much info about how Trading partners such as Commonwealth countries and the USA should prepare for trade with Europe. There is a document called " External Aspects of Economic and Monetary Union".
http://europa.eu.int/euro/en/External/extern.asp
But this really deals with "Why" and not "How".
We really should treat treat this whole subject with more respect. We are dealing with the life-blood of the planet.
Not much of worth appears to be happening in the World of the Century Challenged. In Washington, Ms Katzen has been given the boot, and following an executive order signed by Mr Clinton, a new regime is in process of formation.
Locally, the government body tasked with exploring Y2k, previously called the NCC or "National Consultative Committee on the Year 2000 Phenomenon", has now changed its name to NDSC," National Y2k Decision Support Centre". No actual activity has been discernible.
I am reminded of a quote.
"We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization."
It is a sobering reflection that this was the opinion of that feisty Old Roman, Petronius Arbiter, in 210 BC.
Proving only that Management Style has not changed much in the last two thousand two hundred odd years.
There is a certain amount of frentic activity going on behind the scenes. The IEEE is busy with writing an extensive Software Testing standard. Our own local Y2k SIG has formed Working Group Two to deliberate on COTS testing.
The usual round of conferences is starting up. The occurrence of Y2k articles on the Web is holding steady, neither up, nor down.
So it seems that there is a lot of Work in Progress, but nothing really dramatic is happening.
I am not sure if this is a good or bad sign. My fellow Y2kers are still not happy about general levels of awareness, and are feeling fairly helpless about generating any interest or enthusiasm about the subject.
We are still losing trained people at an alarming rate. Even I have been offered a job, provided I relocate to the UK. No chance. The headhunters are not finding much demand for local Y2k skills. Everything we have is going for Export.
Not a good sign.
It has started to rain, so I had better go and close the windows.