CALDWELL, Idaho, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- A puppy born with female and male sex organs was adopted in Idaho after a successful operation to remove one of its sets of genitalia.

Charcoal, an 8-week old chihuahua mix, was born in a litter of five at the West Valley Humane Society (formerly known as the Canyon County Animal Shelter), but workers noticed something different about the puppy.


"All of the other ones had normal external reproductive parts, except for Charcoal," Cherisse Faulkner, a worker at the West Valley Humane Society, told KIVI.

Charcoal, so named for her color, was born a hermaphrodite. Due to the puppy's difficulty urinating, shelter workers decided to perform a sex-assignment surgery to remedy the problem, removing one set of Charcoal's external reproductive organs.

"It was less intrusive to make it a female rather than go for a male," Faulkner told KIVI.

After a week, Charcoal had healed well and was energetic. Faulkner said after receiving several Facebook messages following the puppy's appearance on a local station, Charcoal was adopted Jan. 20.

Two days ago a hermaphrodite cat in Newfoundland was reportedly being prepared for a sex-assignment surgery due to similar digestive complications.