With January, the winter season would begin weakening, but with official "judgement" not taking place until early February it was too early to determine whether spring would be early or not. But there was a number of new things going on, especially with raising awareness for endangered species, especially since Animalians who are uplifted from endangered species help people pay attention.
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"One such creature that can be considered for our program with endangered species is the goliath frog." said one scientist during a brainstorming session.
"I saw one of those when I was at a zoo." said another scientist.
"Because we don't already have one, I can safely assume that it wasn't at our old zoo." said a third.
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"This was one exotic animal that was seized, then donated, from the Las Vegas International Airport." said the US Customs official, leading something that was vaguely familiar, but way too large for it.
"What is it?" asked a scientist, after a bit of an awkward pause.
"It's a capybara." said the customs official.
"It's the largest member of the rodent family." said one Horizon researcher.
"But how did it get here from South America?" asked the scientist.
"Believe it or not, it was found in a cargo plane that landed at the airport, of all times, during Christmas." said the official. "We intend to uplift it to find out. But most likely it got crated up and transported by mistake, like Kara was."
"After he or she is uplifted, I think he or she can enjoy living at Vilcabamba." said a second scientist.
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"This year's winter is crazy!" complained Daffodil, "It seems to swing between short-sleeve weather and full-on winter, and his long fur isn't making it any easier!"
"Don't worry about it," said Goldenrod, "Once we're officially in spring, we'll start shedding."
"Please let us have Spring early, mister groundhog." Daffodil prayed silently.
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"Dory's shaping up to be quite popular with younger children, isn't she?" asked one member of the PR-MD, watching a news story from Mieni Atoll featuring said surgeonfish Animalian.
"I think that part of it involves calling her 'cousin' on her 'shell-phone' to confirm her identity, who is actually the actor who played Dory." answered another, as that 'act' began.
"Bad joke!" said a third, in a pseudo-Muppet Animal tone of voice, as everyone else groaned at the phone joke.
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"Checking this year's calendar," said yet another PR-MD agent later, "We're fortunate enough to NOT have Ash Wednesday, Valentines Day, and Lunar New Year in the same week."
"That was a little crazy," acknowledged another, "But what are the official dates for Lunar New Year and Ash Wednesday?"
"Lunar new year is supposed to be on February 5th," said the first agent, "While Ash Wednesday is going to be on March 6th."
"That's a bit more of a relief." said the second agent. "We can set things up for at least three days for each holiday with enough 'break' in between."
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With Spring still inconclusive on how soon it was to arrive, the January thaw, as it's sometimes known, was a good start to a new year. Even though the old wives tale "A January fog will kill a hog." can be true, due to sudden cold snaps being deadly to livestock, there were no lives of pig Animalians claimed.