Also, rather than reset my device (which sounds like a dubious solution
for what seems like a server issue), I powered on my Nest Hub (which
hasn't been powered on for 6 months), and it also is incapable of
recognizing "what is the animal of the day"...
I'm also in Canada, with the Nest Mini. I've never asked my Google
Assisstant app on my phone before, but it just searches for the phrase,
"what is the animal of the day".