Jared and Kat Kauthen are frequent visitors to the Santa Barbara Zoo, as the Santa Maria residents make the drive down the coast in order to entertain their four children.
Usually, it’s a day visiting with animals — but, on Sunday, the six Kauthens got a brand-new experience.
The four youngsters touched snow for the first time, with Kat taking a picture of her children playing in snow with the Pacific Ocean and palm trees in the background — quite the juxtaposition for the thousands that took part in the annual Snow Leopard Festival.
“The kids had never seen snow before, they were always begging to go,” Kat said. “Good opportunity to experience a bit of it.”
“Good family time,” Jared added.
Kisa, the zoo’s new snow leopard, enjoyed her first go-round as the headlining feature, pouncing on the snow and acting like a kitten. As the morning wore on, she took to her perch, with her paws in a bit of snow and sunbathed the morning away.
Other animals throughout the zoo, including the amur leopard, otters and capybaras, all received a batch of snow, an enrichment for each of them.
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