Famed Cheetah and Dog Duo Experience Snow for First Time at Richmond Zoo

Animals seem to love it when it snows. From pandas to seals to polar bears, snow brings out the cuteness in animals.

At the Metro Richmond Zoo in Mosley, Virginia, Kumbali and Kago, the famous cheetah cub and puppy pair, experienced snow for the first time during Winter Storm Jonas. It’s safe to say that the cute pair was overexcited to experience snow for the first time in their lives. There was running, tumbling, and bouncing through seven inches of snow and even kind enough to let a human being in on the snow party.

You can check out the adorable video below:

Kumbali is the youngest of three cheetah cubs and his caretakers noticed that he wasn’t growing while his siblings were. It was later determined that Kumbali’s mother had only two functioning nipples of eight meaning that two of the three cubs could drink the milk of his mother. The caretakers decided to bottle-feed him and eventually re-introduce him to the pack.

With his strength being back to normal, caretakers believed that re-introducing him back to his mother and siblings would be dangerous as the mother would consider him to be a threat to her children. He needed a friend that wasn’t human. That’s where Kago came in.

From the moment they first met each other, they were inseparable. According to the zoo, dogs have been used as companions for cheetahs for more than 30 years. The reason for this is because dogs have a calming influence and cheetahs usually pick up behavioral cues from the dog.

The adorable pair is the zoo’s number one attraction and is loved by kids and adults.

If you want to see more of the adorable pair, check out the zoo’s friendship video below. Beware cuteness overload.