WASHINGTON — An animal rescue group left Baghdad last week without a puppy whose cause has been championed by thousands of people around the world.

But the group said the U.S. military had cleared the dog to leave and hoped to get it out of the country soon.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International says the military finally agreed to allow the dog, Ratchet, to leave the country, but only 30 minutes before the flight out, too late for the dog to make it. SPCA's Operation Baghdad Pups flight left with six other dogs bound for the U.S.

The military responded that it did not hold the dog or order it kept at a U.S. military base.

Army Spc. Gwen Beberg, 28, of Minneapolis, adopted Ratchet after she and another soldier rescued the puppy from a burning pile of trash in May. But Defense Department rules prohibit U.S. troops who are deployed from caring for pets in theater or taking them home.

Baghdad Pups tried to collect Ratchet two weeks ago, but said a U.S. commander had intercepted a military convoy carrying the dog to Baghdad and sent it back to Beberg's former base.

More than 45,000 people have signed an online petition urging the Army to let the puppy come to the U.S.

Baghdad Pups has brought more than 50 cats and dogs to the U.S. to be with their owners. The group says it is both rescuing animals that face abuse in Iraq and helping soldiers who benefit from the bond developed with the pets.

Beberg, who plans to return to the U.S. next month, was ecstatic about the news that her dog has been cleared to leave.

"I am thrilled that Ratchet is going home!!" she wrote in an e-mail to the SPCA and others last week, adding that she plans to do a "victory dance" when the dog arrived.

Maj. Daniel Elliott, a spokesman for U.S. forces south of Baghdad, said in a statement that the military had no control of the dog.

"Our military working dogs carry rank and are afforded many of the rights and privileges of their fellow soldiers," he said. "Ratchet is a wild dog indigenous to Iraq. A stray, befriended by a soldier. As such, we do not control him, nor can we 'order' him not to leave" the base.

Elliott added that there was nothing preventing the SPCA from picking up the dog.

Besides the thousands of petition signers, Ratchet had champions such as Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, and both of the state's senators, Democrat Amy Klobuchar and Republican Norm Coleman, all of whom wrote to the military asking it to review the case.