puppies born at the Florida Airport – now that’s a surprise of a lifetime!
Passengers and employees at the Tampa International Airport were in all smiles when a US service dog, gave birth to eight pups in the middle of the main terminal.
Eleanor Rigby (lovingly called Ellie), a two-year-old golden retriever unexpectedly went into labour just before her owners boarded their flight.
While Ellie’s humans knew she was pregnant, but they had no idea she was so close to going into labour. They thought they could fly to Philadelphia and be there before Ellie’s due date.
However, nature speaks in miracles.
It was on a ruff Friday – the 25th of May 2018, when soon-to-be-mommy Ellie and soon-to-be-daddy Nugget (also a golden) were ready to board their flight with their owner Diane Van Atter and her step-mom Karen James, but suddenly Ellie got into labour at the Tampa International Airport’s Gate F80.
The emergency responders – Aircraft Rescue Firefighters (ARFF) – received a call to help Ellie in the delivery process.
According to reports, a nurse in the crowd of passengers stepped in to assist Ellie before the rescue team could arrive. The nurse lady was able to help Ellie deliver five of the cute golden pups before leaving to board her flight.
Soon, Lt. Natalie Brown – the first responder to Ellie reached at the site with her partner officer, and two puppies had already been born when they arrived.
Ellie and her puppies drew a crowd at the terminal and soon, travellers and onlookers started capturing images and videos to share the “magical” moment on social media.
Lt. Brown had got her obstetrics and gynecology kit for Ellie. She advised on moving Ellie to a quieter area, far from the crowd but Ellie’s owner was not sure about moving her in this condition, so they remained at the site.
Service dogs Ellie and Nugget are now parents to seven male pups and one female pup.
Service dogs are well-trained to assist people with disabilities by performing certain actions like guiding the blind (seeing-eye dogs), assisting the hearing-impaired with signalling sounds, alerting about oncoming seizures, and soothing passengers suffering from anxiety, depression, PTSD or similar mental health issues.
The family – and their eight new additions – missed their flight as the ordeal lasted for over four hours.
While Ellie rested and nursed her bunch of puppies, the pups’ father, Nugget, gently sat close to Ellie and watched the pups wiggle.
Diane Van Atter changed her travel plans and decided to make a 1600-kilometre road trip to get the 8 dogs home as flights weren’t a safe option for the new-borns.
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Share this amazing story of puppies born at the Florida Airport with all the dog lovers out there. Thank you