While there was the most focus on the Year of the Zodiac competitions, there were still some things going on that continued to prove that Animalia and its colonies were not completely immune to the outside world, though most of them were more funny than sad.
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The biggest example of this was the only event that was bigger than Lunar New Year (at least in America): Super Bowl LIX. While there still wasn't a sport that could meet Animalians' "special needs" (size, strength, etc.), it was still an important American tradition. Because of this, there was still a big party in the Great Hall with both football, commercials, food, and drink. This would lead to a few amusing scenes that would end up on the Animalia Website.
One of these was that, while snakes couldn't "swell up" like the deep-sea fish Animalians, they could still shift a large amount of food and drink, leaving them hilariously bloated. However, those who were competing in the Year of the Zodiac weren't really allowed to overindulge, and for an understandable reason. But this still led to some snake Animalians left in a cordoned off zone with both pillows and heat rocks to sleep off their "food hangovers".
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Another thing, that was absolutely hilarious in its own way, happened when a group of PETA supporters attempted to use a large dump truck to dump a large amount of dirt on the front doorstep of Horizon's main building as a kind of "dirty protest". However, because of the low temperatures (due to it being January, and Lyre/Animalia being in the Mojave Desert), the dirt ended up freezing solid and sticking to the dump truck's bucket (at least I think that's what it's called), and not one of the supporters had either a pickaxe or a shovel. In the end, all the protesters got arrested for various minor, yet hilarious, charges. Both the Animalia website, and the internet in general, absolutely blew up with mockery at PETA at how badly they failed.