Tough Chauncey — Doris Buchanan Smith

... troubled kid. Small for thirteen but tougher than anyone except maybe his rival Black Jack Levitt, Chauncey finds himself hitting out irrationally (and usually physically) at everyone who comes near. Though he longs to live with his thrice-divorced mother, who tears him up by neither taking him in nor letting him go, he must stay instead with a suspicious grandfather who shoots stray cats and beats, bothers and imprisons Chauncey so that he will grow up straight. It's evident that the old man does care for the boy in his own way but just as obvious that his way makes Chauncey's life with him unendurable; thus it's a relief that even after Chauncey suffers a serious leg injury and runs away on crutches with the one kitten he has saved from the shotgun ...