11-year-old Sophie is our first Dog of the Month. This new feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Sophie’s human, Ben, for his support.

Dog name: Sophie aka Sophie Doge aka Soph doggie dog (sung to the tune, obviously)

Age: 11-ish

Breed: Mostly lab

If rescued, where from? 

Not “rescued” as such, but we adopted Sophie from other owners when she was about two.

If dog of the month had not been a reward in our PledgeMe campaign, give us the pitch on why Sophie would be dog of the month anyway.

Where most dogs are dogs with personalities, Sophie is a person who happens to be a dog. She prefers to walk on paved paths and hates nothing more than getting her feet wet, or, god forbid, having to step in mud. When meeting other dogs, rather than going bonkers like any dog would, her reaction is that of a dog-agnostic person: “Oh look a dog. Cool. Let’s keep walking”. They say that dogs are like their owners (or is it vice versa?): comfortable in her own skin, shy to the point of appearing snobby, and a little bit depressed. To be honest, I love dogs (especially Sophie), but I’m not one of those 1000% dog-people, so having a dog that is not like a dog is the best thing. 

Also: Sophie’s best trick is that she does the most gentle “whuff” when you tell her to “say WOOF!” It’s barely audible.

The photo Sophie would use for a social media or Tinder profile photo

The photo Sophie would ask to be taken down if you shared it on social media 

What is Sophie’s idea of happiness? 

Occasionally, when we go for a walk to the local park, Sophie will find a chicken bone or a discarded pie wrapper. The other day, someone appeared to have distributed an entire packet of sliced salami across a 20 square metre area. Sophie’s idea of happiness would be an infinite field of salami. Not solid salami, but an infinite paddock with salami slices every 5-10 metres so that there was fun in finding each morsel.

If Sophie could talk, what famous voice would it sound like?

I think she’d sound quite like Kim Hill, both in tone and vibe. Deeply serious and knowledgeable but absolutely immune from excitability or credulity.

What food would your dog want to see ranked by The Spinoff?

Mystery meats: ranked. The Hobsonville ham, park salami, the magic pie bush.

Does your dog have any friends? 

Sophie has a minder called Pretzel. Because Sophie is polite and stubborn, Pretzel will often come to her aid. If Sophie is waiting for the door to open, Pretzel will come up and meow loudly for us to open the door. When we walk to the local park, Pretzel will follow us and lurk around the edges of the park like a secret service officer making sure no one is waiting the bushes to attack.

Sophie has never been an alpha dog, and I like to think that Sophie considers Pretzel the alpha because she’s much more relaxed when Pretzel is nearby.

Also, this sneak attack is an excellent example of Sophie’s temperament.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. What’s Eating Aotearoa is a reader-funded editorial project from The Spinoff focused on food and how it shapes this country.

Are you finding the sticky, humid weather this summer unbearable? Here’s what to do. 

For many people, the heat and humidity of parts of the country in the last few days would have been almost intolerable.   

Overseas, heat has been a killer.  61,000 people died of heat-related conditions in the summer of 2022 in Europe. Germany recorded over 3,000 in the first nine months of 2023. Globally, unknown numbers of people died in the heat extremes of last year.

The elderly, the very young, people with health conditions and pregnant women are the most susceptible to heat. Their body’s ability to regulate temperature is weakened or, in the case of babies, undeveloped. 

A Coroner’s report of the 2021 British Columbia heat dome fatalities found that most deaths occurred inside peoples’ homes: “People don’t die because it’s hot outside; they die because it’s hot inside”. Without special measures to get rid of the day’s heat overnight, temperature builds up, each day inside getting hotter and hotter. Warm nights not only stop the day’s heat from dissipating, they make sleep and its benefits for coping much harder.

The Coroner’s report found that the most deaths were among elderly, people with medical conditions and people who lived on their own. Deaths were particularly concentrated in low income or deprived neighbourhoods. Residents of such neighbourhoods are less likely to have heat pumps and ways to cool their home.

Mild heat stress can include heavy sweating, clammy skin, tiredness, headache and dizziness. The person may feel nauseous and faint; they may be irritable, have muscle cramps, and have concentrated yellow urine. Anyone suffering these symptoms needs to reduce body heat and rehydrate quickly. If taking a cool bath or shower is not possible, other ways to reduce heat include loosening tight clothing, sponging areas of bare skin and applying ice packs or wet cloths to armpits, neck and groin. 

To rehydrate, drink plenty of water.  Sport drinks can replace water, but not alcohol or fizzy, sugary drinks which can interfere with the body’s temperature control. 

If conditions get hotter or last for longer, the body finds it harder and harder to keep cool by sweating. The sweating stops (because the body no longer has the excess water to sweat), body temperature rises, the skin becomes hot and dry, the heart rate speeds up and the person can become dizzy, confused, nauseous and vomit. In the worst case, they have convulsions, seizures or lose consciousness.

At this point, the person is in a dangerous situation because their vital organs are under stress. They need proper medical attention. An ambulance should be called. Cooling measures should be taken while waiting for the ambulance (eg sponging bare skin, applying ice packs or wet cloths to neck, armpits and groin) and, if they are unconscious, they need to be shifted into the recovery position with mouth down and chin up (to prevent suffocation).

In most homes, it’s possible to reduce the build-up of heat inside. Air conditioners or heat pumps are ideal. Air conditioners cool in the same way as refrigerators; they suck in warm air, move it over evaporator coils in the machine and pump it out again. Heat pumps are similar to air conditioners except that they can heat as well as cool. 

Fans work by increasing air flow and thereby increasing sweat evaporation. The cooling effect of fans is usually limited to the space in front of the fan, rather than a room at large. Ceiling fans fitted to the centre of a room can have some effect, but do not actually cool the air; they simply keep it moving. Depending on the size of the room and the power of the machine, heat pumps and air conditioners can cool a whole room but they usually depend on mains power electricity to run. Fans work on electricity but can also use batteries. 

Dehumidifiers can also help to reduce the effects of heat. They take out moisture in the air so that sweating becomes more effective. Like air-conditioners and heat pumps, they need an electricity supply.

From a cost and self-sufficiency viewpoint as well as for environmental reasons, the best way to cool your home is with minimal electricity or without power.  Here are some suggestions on what to do:

• Unless you have a strong breeze that can blow heat out of the house, close all windows and curtains and blinds from early morning for the rest of the day. The best curtains for keeping out heat are ones that are lined and reach from floor to ceiling.  Even lace curtains and ones which just cover the windows can provide some protection. DOUBLE GLAZING IS BEST OF ALL. 
• Open all windows (and doors if possible) at night, once the air outside is cooler than the air inside. 
• Dampen curtains at night and the air moving past the curtains will reduce the temperature in the room.
• Put away floor covers that can trap heat, for example shag carpets.  
• Find the coolest room in the house and make it a comfortable retreat or your main living space – it will usually be on the south side of the house and at ground level or the basement.
• Close the doors of rooms that aren’t being used, especially if they are on the north side or the side that gets the afternoon sun.
• Avoid cooking indoors or during the middle of the day – for example, use a barbecue or use the kitchen stove once every few days for meals that can be stored and brought out as you need them. Microwaves can cook things faster and more efficiently than stoves.
• Reduce your use of appliances which cause heat or use them at night, for example, washers, dryers and vacuums.
• Use light clothing and bedding.
• If you have to go outdoors, wear light-coloured clothes that will not absorb heat.  Black and brown, dark reds, greens and blues will all feel much hotter than white or cream.  
• Drink lots of water.  
• Keep a damp cloth round your neck or take a shower or soak in the bath.
• Consider planting trees that will block the sun on the north or east side of your house, and beside any outside space that you park your car.
• Adapt your daily routine to do the active things, for example shopping or exercise,  early in the day or late in the afternoon or evening. If you can’t sleep at night and you have time in the middle of the day, go somewhere cool and rest.
• If you still feel desperate, check out public spaces that are air conditioned, for example, supermarkets, shopping malls and libraries.

Scientists have told us that temperatures are going to continue rising for the foreseeable future. Many of the measures just noted are practical common sense, but they are also habits and ways of doing things that we will need to follow more and more in the future. They are adaptations to a changing world.