Puppy Escapes Crate At Laguardia Airport, Delays Flights (PHOTOS)

A playful pooch escaped her crate at LaGuardia airport Wednesday, running free on the runway and forcing officials to shut down the tarmac and delay flights.

NBC reports that Byrdie, a 30-pound Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy, broke free of her cage at about 10AM while being loaded onto a Delta flight destined for Memphis.

Robert Lund tweeted, "We can't take off because there is apparently a loose dog (!) running around the runway."

Port Authority officials immediately located Byrdie's owner to help retrieve the dog. The owner called out to Byrdie and she ran back to her. The whole debacle lasted only 10 minutes (not long enough for anyone to start a Twitter account), and briefly delayed two or three departing flights.

Byrdie wasn't the only animal to cause a problem for metro area flights this week. Tuesday evening in Westchester, a JetBlue flight made an emergency landing after hitting geese soon after takeoff.

The New York Post also recently reported that 99 bunnies and hares were shot and killed at JFK in 2011, because the cuddly creatures attract birds of prey--a hazard to arriving and departing planes.