St. Patrick's Day had once again come, but Animalia wasn't celebrating it as boisterously as before. With the corona virus spreading, public events and gathering were canceled or put on hold. Some public places such as the schools and libraries were being closed for the rest of March. Even the Meat Market wasn't too rowdy as there were fewer customers coming in.
Still, that didn't mean all the cheer was gone. People were finding ways of celebrating St. Patrick's Day privately. For instance, the Brown family were planting plenty of potatoes that day. Abby was certainly glad she could still eat potatoes in their various preparations. As a horse, she could eat one raw, but there was a lot more flavor if it was cooked. There were also plenty of people watching movies online, such as 'The Luck of the Irish' or 'Song of the Sea'. The latter spawned a few jokes about seal Animalians being selkies. Louise made one particularly memorable comment, "Well, I could take off my skin, but I don't think you'd find me pretty underneath."
To keep up spirits during the pandemic, citizens of Animalia have been asked to post some interesting and exciting things that have happened lately. Probably one of the most noticeable ones came from Ashley and Jennifer. Since the pair of them were converted and double-dosed together, they were practically inseparable. And while Ashley had her own bondmate in Skippy, she was more than happy to share him with Jennifer. Even so, Jennifer was also looking for a boyfriend of her own, one who didn't mind being a skunk or sharing her with Ashley and Skippy.
One of the richer people moving to Animalia just happened to want to be a skunk. He was interested in Jennifer, even though she was chronologically younger than she appeared. However, Jennifer made it clear that she was part of a package deal and Ashley would be just as involved with her. This required some negotiations that had to be done in person, so Jennifer and Ashley eventually went over to her prospective boyfriend's new residence a few times to talk this over. On this day, Jennifer posted a pic on the Mature part of the Animalia website. It showed her and Ashley cuddling on either side of Jennifer's new mate, Cooper. All three of them were naked, with Ashley and Jennifer just wearing shamrock-shaped pasties and draping their tails over their crotches. Cooper just had a green hat on his crotch and an arm around both girls. Many a commenter called Cooper a 'lucky skunk'.
Considering the official start of spring was very soon and it was a time that many animal species went into seasons, quite a few Animalian couples posted about discovering they were expecting. Of these posts, probably the one most commented on was that of Allura and Beacon. The two herm anglerfishes have been trying to start a family for a while. The problem was that the anglerfish is a deep sea fish and it was impossible to tell when it went into season or if there was a particular time. But quite recently, Beacon had been showing small signs and a pregnancy test confirmed it. When Allura was asked how it felt to know shi would be a father. Allura couldn't really tell how shi felt yet, considering parenthood is a foreign concept to many fish, let alone an anglerfish. But shi admitted shi felt some pride in knowing shi was capable of breeding.
While St. Patrick's Day may have been a bit flatter than the usual Animalian holiday, people hoped that the corona virus won't be putting a damper on other holidays. There were plenty of people saying that the worst of it should die down by Easter. Though it may be too early to tell, it was certainly hoped for.