Total

Total the Dog

History

The Angel Experiment

Angel rescued him from the Institute for Higher Living in New York during the liberation of the second flock. She kept him to herself until Max noticed that she had been carrying him through New York. She said she didn't want Angel to have a dog because they had a hard enough time feeding themselves, and it would be much harder to feed a dog as well. However, Fang agreed to let Angel have the dog, but only if she took care of him at all times. Although, this may have occurred, as seen in manga version, because Angel gave him Bambi eyes.

School's Out - Forever

Total seems like a typical dog, and the Flock has to carry him while they fly. Although Angel is attached to him, Max sees him as disposable. Angel keeps Total with her throughout their visit to the hospital, sharing a muffin with him at one point. Anne Walker is surprised to see that she was able to get a dog inside. While exploring Anne’s property, the Flock encounters another dog which Total begins to bark at. Max overhears Total calling the dog a putz, but assumes it’s just Gazzy using ventriloquism. A few days later, she hears him talking again while the Flock is playing in the pond. When she asks why he kept it a secret, he replies that it's not like he was lying, and he's still getting used to the idea of flying bird kids. Total now talks more openly, and mentions while being carried by Iggy that he loves flying. When Max discovers her ability to fly at super-speed, Total says he wants to ride with her. He likes to ride inside her jacket for warmth. However, she still prefers to leave him at home.

He’s happy to stay home while the Flock attends school, but stares at Max until she fixes him coffee in a bowl. In other ways he acts like a normal dog, licking the Flock’s faces and sleeping on Angel’s bed. They have to return to Anne’s house one last time to pick up Total; they find him running from Erasers, and he jumps thirty feet into the air, where Angel catches him. As they travel, carrying Total continues to be a problem, as when Gazzy and Iggy collide in midair while goofing off and Iggy drops Total. Max dives through the clouds to catch him, narrowly avoiding being hit by a glider. Badly scared by the event, Total remarks that he needs his own wings. Though Angel and Total are clearly attached to each other, Max still isn’t sure if they can truly trust Total.

While at Disney World, he poses as Iggy’s guide dog in order to be allowed in. A child overhears him talking and gets suspicious, but Max manages to shrug it off by claiming that it was a ventriloquism trick by Gazzy. Later, one of the clues that Max II is an impostor is that she assumes Total is an ordinary dog. Total’s worst fear seems to be a bowl of generic dog food.

Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

While the Flock is in the School's custody, they are told that all of their adventures, including finding Total, were a dream, and that Total never existed. However, when Ari and Angel implement the escape plan, Ari brings Total hidden in his coat.

Total accompanies the girls to Europe.

The Final Warning

On the Wendy K, Total meets Akila and is smitten. He also begins to grow wings.

MAX

Total is now capable of flight and can perform with the Flock in airshows. The sniper's bullet grazes his tail, and he is very dramatic about it. He says, "Arrrrggh! They got me, Max. I'm going down. I never even got to see Paris. Farewell."

FANG

In the epilogue, Total celebrates his wedding to Akila.

ANGEL

Total returns to the Flock after his honeymoon with Akila.

Nevermore

Total gets his own tree house on Paradise, where Akila is waiting for him.

Maximum Ride Forever

When Akila dies of battle injuries and smoke inhalation, Total is heartbroken. He then wails, and being the only dog able to do so, it is very sad. He later chooses to remain with Nudge and the Aquatics in the underwater city.

At the end, he helps give Phoenix flying advice.

Abilities

Leaping

Total in Max Ride: Ultimate Flight

Close to the end of the first book, the Flock was hiding from a rainstorm in an abandoned band shell when they realize that Total could leap to extreme heights of up to fifty feet.

During part of School's Out - Forever, in which Anne Walker's home was being swarmed with Erasers after chaos at the Flock's temporary school, Total leaped three stories high to get into Angel's arms before the Eraser chasing him caught up.

Speech

In School's Out - Forever, the Flock was at Anne Walker's house when they found out that Total could speak. At first, Max believed that Gazzy was testing out his latest voice-throwing trick, but then saw that Gazzy was high up in the air and about to dive-bomb into the pond, so therefore he was not making Total's voice. Angel had known prior to the rest of the Flock finding out, but she didn't tell anyone until then.

Flying

In The Final Warning, Total began to develop black feathery wings. By the time of MAX, they have developed enough for him to fly.

Relationships

Akila

In The Final Warning, Total met a pure-bred Alaskan Malamute in Antarctica who went by the name Akila. He claimed that she was the most beautiful dog he had ever seen, and immediately believed her to be the perfect match for him. There was a discussion about her among the Flock and Total, during which Total called her a goddess and was offended when Max called her a regular dog. Another time in the book, Total and Akila went out with Angel to catch a penguin for her, and they got stuck in a crevasse under a thin layer or ice. It was only then till Max and Fang came to rescue them that they escaped—right into the middle of a snowstorm, and eventually ended up in the hands of the Uber-Director.

In the fifth book, MAX, he strode up to Akila and, "with a flourish," showed her his wings.

In FANG, the sixth book, Total and Akila got married.

In Nevermore, Total got separated from Akila when he went with the Flock. Fortunately, when they got to Paradise, they met up again and had their very own dog-treehouse.

When Akila died from wounds inflicted by the Cryenas in Maximum Ride Forever, Total was devastated. He cried  and Max exclaimed how a dogs' cry was very affecting and soon the whole flock was crying with Total. 

Trivia

• He won't eat dog food and insists on eating at the table.
• He admires modern artwork.
• He loves France because dogs are allowed everywhere
• In MAX, it is shown that he can be very melodramatic; Max later said regarding him being shot in the tail, "He'd gotten more mileage out of that weensy flesh wound than I've gotten out of broken ribs."
• He loves being treated as a human