There is nothing more heartwarming than a dog giving birth to a litter of puppies. You start with just two lovable canines and end up with multitudes of them running around the home, or in this case, the farm.
It’s a sight to behold.
However, when farmer Cristian Mallocci from Italy examined the litter of pups that his dog Spelacchia gave birth to recently, he noticed something really strange. One of them had green fur!
It was a really unexpected occurrence, and also, really rare.
Spelacchia is a mixed breed with all-white fur.
Her name, Spelacchia, in Italian literally means “mangy”. She has wavy white fur that lies somewhere in between short-haired and long-haired breeds.
Among her litter of five puppies, four of them looked exactly like her.
The puppies’ white fur matched up perfectly with their mom’s, and they essentially looked just like miniature versions of her.
However, one pup arrived into this world looking a bit different.
The oddball had a noticeable green hue covering much of his white coat. The Italian farmer named him Pistachio based on the unique green color.
If the pup was on his own, separated from the rest of the litter, the color might have been overlooked.
However, once you position Pistachio next to his four other siblings, the difference is impossible to ignore.
Mallocci was shocked when he first discovered Pistachio’s weird appearance.
It turns out, it’s perfectly normal. Although, it is extremely rare. Green-colored fur is a condition that is thought to occur when a puppy comes in contact with a pigment called biliverdin in the mother’s womb. The pigment is the same one responsible for the greenish tint often seen under the skin in bruises.
It typically only results in the fur turning green in light-colored puppies.
After all, if Pistachio had black fur, a little bit of green wouldn’t even show up. It would just blend right in.
However, over time, Pistachio’s green color should eventually fade away.
It’s likely that by the time he becomes full-grown, he will be just like all of his other brothers and sisters. Although, Mallocci plans on keeping Pistachio around the farm anyway. Mallocci will train him to one day help keep all of the sheep in line, just like Spelacchia currently does on the Mediterranean property.
All of the other pups will be given away to new homes.
However, there is no doubt that Pistachio still holds a special place in the heart of the Italian farmer. Even though it’s likely that Pistachio won’t remain green forever, the pup will always be remembered as the one who came out different than the rest.
In Italian culture, green is a symbol of good luck as well as hope.
It’s safe to say that with everything going on in the world these days, we could definitely use a little bit of that! Could Pistachio’s birth be a sign of good things to come in the future? Of course, no one is really sure, but we can pray that that is the case.
At the very least, the furry green surprise has resulted in a lot of smiles on a lot of people’s faces. Mallocci and his brother-in-law Giannangelo Liperi run the farm together on the island of Sardinia, where currently, Pistachio is the talk of the town.
Watch the full news video of the puppy born with green fur below.
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