Summer 1987, Chapter 5 Summary

Lafeyette is friends with an older boy named Calvin Robinson, nicknamed Bird Leg, who loves dogs. While Bird Leg is teased for this obsession, younger kids like Lafeyette appreciate it. Lafeyette often joins Bird Leg to hunt for German shepherds, mutts, and pit bulls in the back yards of Hispanic and white neighborhoods north of the Horner Homes. While the dogs growl and bark at Lafeyette and other boys, they warm up to Bird Leg who unchains them and brings them home. Bird Leg has an assortment of stolen and stray dogs he keeps in an abandoned garage near Lafeyette's building. A few nights a week, Bird Leg rummages through trash bins behind a Kentucky Fried Chicken to find leftover meals for his dogs. When Bird Leg becomes affiliated with the Vice Lords, he and Lafeyette grow apart. One day Bird...