Golden Retriever Dog Delivers Litter Of Puppies At Florida Airport [Photos, Video]

A service dog delivered a healthy litter of puppies at Tampa International Airport, Florida, after going into labor Friday as she waited to board a Philadelphia-bound flight with her owner.

Paramedics from the Tampa Fire Rescue assisted the 2-year-old golden retriever named Eleanor Rigby to give birth to seven males and a female puppy, in an occasion enjoyed by all the travelers who were present near Gate F-81. The father of the puppies – a dog named Golden Nugget – was also present at the scene of the delivery.

Photos and a video of the incident were uploaded on the fire department’s Twitter page under the hashtag “AirportPuppies.”

Apart from the fire department, a professional nurse who was present at the airport also helped out, although she had to leave in the middle of the delivery because her flight was about to take off.

Emily Nipps, A spokeswoman for the airport, said: "I’ve never seen anything like this in an airport, or otherwise.”

The owner of the service dog, Diane Van Atter, was supposed to travel to Philadelphia with her stepmother Karen James, who was accompanying her, but both of them missed their flight due to the three-hour-long delivery, which created quite a buzz at the airport.

Van Atter said Rigby was still training as a service dog to help her with mobility and pain issues. James said they knew their dog was pregnant but experienced an early labor due to the excitement of being around several people at the airport.

It was difficult to control the father of the puppies during the delivery. "Every time she’s ready to deliver another one he starts jumping around,” James told Tampa Bay Times.

James added that they planned to go back to their home in Bradenton, Florida, with the dogs and the puppies and calm their nerves before deciding on a plan to drive to Philadelphia with the puppies.