A Mississippi Puppy Was Born Green

If I feel like I need a , I obviously immediately turn to Joni Mitchell’s 1971 album, Blue (now available again on Spotify!). And while some people’s go-tos on that album are the eternally prescient “All I Want” and “A Case of You,” mine is “Little Green.” The song is the melancholic ode to the daughter Mitchell put up for adoption in 1965, and though its a surefire tear-jerker for that reason alone, its also hopeful in its message: “Little Green, have a happy ending / Just a little Green / Like the color when the spring is born.”

That song started playing through my head when I saw the news that now calls for a literal interpretation of this ditty: An American Pit Bull Terrier named Pearl in Mississippi has given birth to a green puppy.

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Meet this “Little Green” pup.

Pearl’s parents, Annise Tooley and her boyfriend, Greg Fucich, delivered the puppies on Nov. 3. Shortly, after, they noticed the pup had a green tint to her coat, when compared to her siblings’ white coloring. They appropriately named the little one Fiona, after the ogre-princess in Shrek.

Tooley told local news network WLOX that she had to consult Google: “Why are one of my puppies that my American Pit had... green?” Turns out, Pearl’s puppy was in good company. Earlier this year, a Golden Retriever puppy born in Pensacola, Florida, just before St. Patrick’s Day also shared the green-hue characteristic. “We were kind of shocked,” Carole DeBruler, owner of Golden Treasures Kennel where the pup was born, told People. “We rubbed her, and the green just didn’t come off.”

Here is a photo of Pistachio, a green pup born on the island of Sardinia, in Pattada, Italy, four years ago:

What causes this phenomenon?

So, back to Tooley’s original question: Why? Both Fiona and Shamrock were born with a pigment on their coats called biliverdin, which can sometimes (rarely) mix with a pregnant dog’s amniotic fluid. It’s essentially the breakdown of hemoglobin or other heme proteins. Thankfully, it is harmless and only lasts for a short time.

“The puppy’s green hue is likely to have been caused by meconium, a puppy’s first feces which may be passed ahead of birth, or placental pigments,” Daniella Dos Santos, president of the British Veterinary Association, told The Independent in October 2020, upon the birth of a green German Shepherd puppy in North Carolina. Shana Stamey, the pet parent of the German Shepherd mom and her litter, said the puppy’s mom would lick off the green while Stamey gave her a bath, which would cause the color to fade in a matter of weeks.

As for Fiona’s future? The lucky little pup will go to a worthy home when she’s old enough.

References:

Metabolic Functions of Biliverdin IXβ Reductase in Redox-Regulated Hematopoietic Cell Fate