No one understands how these 2 white dogs gave birth to litter of black puppies

When Texas teen Jacqueline Arguello’s dog Mocca gave birth to puppies, Arguello quickly turned from excited to suspicious.

The thing is, Mocca is a white bichon frise. And until then, her would-be baby daddy was believed to be the other white bichon frise pictured below.

But instead of having white puppies, Mocca gave birth to a litter of black puppies…

Leading Arguello to believe that her dog’s partner was, um, not the pawther.

“When I saw her first baby be born, I thought it was funny that [the baby] was black,” Arguello told BuzzFeed News. “And then the next one was black, and the next, and the next!”

Yes, this is definitely a paternity mystery only Maury Povich could solve.

Arguello said their family wondered if Mocca had somehow got out and bred with another dog without their knowledge—until that point, the other bichon frise had been the only dog the family allowed Mocca to be around. So when Mocca got pregnant two weeks after the dogs’ meet-cute, Arguello’s family thought he was the father.

After the birth of Mocca’s litter, they, and everyone on the internet, were shocked to find out otherwise.

https://twitter.com/NDeaCRENSHAW/status/816153189624020993

https://twitter.com/Miami_Keke/status/816096759403384836

https://twitter.com/MrHendo50/status/816125309145608192

https://twitter.com/ShyD_74/status/816503808188481536

OK, so maybe Mocca isn’t running around on her would-be baby daddy. According to, well… science? Gregor Mendel? Genetics? This is completely plausible.

In dog genetics, the “recessive black” gene is a thing that very much exists, and can even be possessed by white dogs—Mocca and her partner could both be carrying the recessive black gene (without expressing it, because they both have white coats), and therefore passed both recessive genes onto their pups, causing them to have black coats. Without knowing more about each dog’s genetic makeup, however, no internet dog diagnosis is certain.

Aguello told BuzzFeed News that she doesn’t plan on getting an actual pawternity test done, and is just enjoying the newborn litter.

“I’m just happy we have beautiful healthy pups and eventually we’ll see if they look like daddy,” Arguello said.