'
The next morning, Mrs. Robin kissed Mr. Robin and the babies good-bye and set out on her journey. She traveled over 1400 miles listening for any tweet about the best puppy in the world. 

After a week of flying around the country, getting directions from every bird she met, Mrs. Robin heard the sound of a faint and tiny voice: 

"Even if you don't have a name, you are the best puppy in the world," the sweet little voice said.

"At last!" said Mrs. Robin, "Maybe this is the puppy that Patrick and Cricket are looking for." 

Mrs. Robin flew closer to the sound of the fragile voice. It was difficult to hear through the sounds of barking and crying dogs.

A sign on a barbed wire fence warned visitors to keep out.

Mrs. Robin could not believe the horrid smell.  She listened for the tiny voice again, coming from a decrepit building. She frantically searched  for a way to get in. 

"No one can get in there, Birdlady," said a big dog in a cramped and wired cage.

"Do you live here?" asked Mrs. Robin politely.

"You can't call it livin'" said the dog.  "We are prisoners of greed.  It's like jail only worse.   We stay here until we die, and that usually doesn't take very long. Welcome to Anguish Acres."
 

"Those wires you are standing on look painful," said Mrs. Robin.

"Pain is all we know," said the dog, "and hunger and filth and disease. We are never let out of these cages.  Our feet get cut and bleed. No one cares.  I'm one of the lucky ones because at least I see the light of day."

"My name is Mrs. Robin," the bird said politely, "what is yours?"

The big dog laughed a bitter laugh. "We are too poor to have names here Mrs. Robin, ma'am.  All we have is numbers.  I'm Male 852."
 
"Why are you prisoners?" asked Mrs. Robin in shock.

"We are kept here and forced to have puppies who are then jammed in trucks and sent away to be sold in pet stores.  Thousands of dogs and puppies die every day, never knowing what it feels like to be loved, while Farmer Misery gets fat and happy. 

That's all a dog wants in the whole world," said M852.  "We just want to be loved."
"Who is Farmer Misery?" asked the robin. 

"The puppy mill farmer who locks us up and uses us up until we die." The dog explained. "This place is so forsaken, birds don't even fly here. What brings you?" 

"I heard a tiny voice," said Mrs. Robin. "Telling someone they were the best puppy in the world."

"They don't call them puppies here," said the dog.  "They call them PRODUCT. You can't get in. No one can."
 
Mrs. Robin studied the keyhole that padlocked the barn door. 

She had no intention of leaving without finding the best puppy for Patrick and Cricket. 

"If there's someone special you are looking for, I suggest you find him quick. The healthiest ones are stuffed in trucks and shipped out fast.  The others are left to die."

"Die?" gasped Mrs. Robin in disbelief. 

"Not just die," said the dog. "They are starved to death." 

Mrs. Robin looked through the keyhole in horror.
She tried to understand what she was seeing. "What is a cull cage?" Mrs. Robin asked the Big Dog.

"The cull cage is where they put the sick ones to die, away from the others. No medicine, food or water is wasted on them.  When they finally die, Farmer Misery deducts them as a business expense on his taxes. It's all about the money."

"We need to get in there," said Mrs. Robin.  "I need to find someone small enough to fit through that keyhole."