The tiny pooch, immediately named Pistachio, was part of a five-dog litter born on October 9.
All of Pistachio’s siblings were born with white fur, the same colour as their mixed-breed mum.
Mallocci runs a farm on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia with his brother-in-law Giannangelo Liperi.
It is extremely rare for a dog to be born with green-coloured fur.
It is thought that it happens when pale coloured puppies have contact in their mother’s womb with a green pigment called biliverdin, which also causes the green colour in bruises.
Pistachio’s peculiar colour won’t last forever.
The bright green his fur had on the day of his birth has faded day by day and it will continue to do so as he gets older.
While his brothers and sisters will be given away to new homes, Mallocci said he would keep Pistachio on his farm and train him up to look after the sheep with his mother.
Mallocci said that during these tough times of the coronavirus pandemic, green is the symbol of hope and luck, so maybe it was meant to be that Pistachio could put a smile on people’s faces.
