A Golden Retriever gave birth to a lime green puppy

The puppy, the smallest of a litter of eight, was born on March 3, two weeks before St. Patrick's Day, in Pensacola, Florida, with a dark green hue.

The rest of the puppies in the litter had an almost white coat.

The puppy was named "Shamrock", the three-leaf clover that is Ireland's national symbol.

"I'm very excited to be able to share Shamrock with the world," says the dog's owner, Carole DeBruler, who has posted several videos of the puppy on social media.

"We were a little shocked," she told People.

Carole and her husband, Greg, have been breeding light-colored golden retrievers for almost 17 years. "We scrubbed it all over, but the green didn't come off," she adds.

According to Carole, 59, it's not unusual for light-colored puppies to have "some green or a slight tinge, but normally any green in a newborn puppy comes right out. The mother cleans them, we clean them and it comes out. Hers didn't come out," she says. "That's rare."

After a few cleanings by Carole and her mother, little Shamrock's color went from a very dark green to "bright lime green".

In a video she shared on Tik Tok, Carole explains that Shamrock was "stained" green in the womb by biliverdin, a bile pigment that can sometimes mix with puppies' amniotic fluid.

Shamrock is the smallest of the litter of siblings, but her carer says the canine has more personality. "She's a lucky dog!" says Carole. "Puppies generally make me happy. I love dogs. But Shamrock is a favorite.

"She just shines," she says. "She was small, but feisty. And she's a lot of fun to watch.