I feel compelled to offer my apologies to the list membership for my posting here about a week ago in which I made retorical use of the word "dogpiles" as in "cleaning up our own dogpiles". It was certainly not my intent to offend anyone with my usual and rather cavalier use of language. Nontheless, following that post, a number of dog owners on the list wrote to me privately to express thier disgust and outrage at what appeared to them to have been personalised and selective attacks on either them or their pets or both. As it was pointed out to me, in no uncertain terms, dogs are far from the only type of pets that routinely manufacture piles of what are generally considered to be non-recyclable waste by-products. Cats, lizards, parakeets, and even ring-tailed lemurs also routinely gift to thier environments copious quantities of effluent. Given these facts, some members here righfully objected to my singling out of dogs for either special note or special derision. I do apologize to all concerned, and I promise that in future I will make every reasonable attempt to be species-neutral in my use of language, whenever possible, especially now that I am aware of the issue, and of the specific offense that some on the list can and do take to my manner of speech. To paraphrase, I will amend my speech lest I mar my fortunes. Regards, rfg P.S. It certainly does seem evident to me that the best way that I could avoid getting into trouble like this in the future would be for me to never say anything. I do believe, based on some evidence, that at least a few of the members here would be quite alright with that solution.