The Waggit Trilogy is a book trilogy about dogs living in New York City's Central Park. The first book, Waggit's Tale (released in 2008), tells of a little white puppy named Waggit who is recently abandoned by his owner. A big black dog named Tazar finds him and invites him to live with his team, a gang of dogs surviving together, while naming him Waggit because of his long wagging tail. Waggit grows up learning how to survive in Central Park as a stray, scavenging and hunting for food as well as clashing with a rival dog pack. But when he receives kindness from an old woman, he decides to seize his chance to become a pet once again.
Two more books follow Waggit's Tale: Waggit Again (2009) and Waggit Forever (2010).
The Waggit Trilogy provides examples of:
- A Pet into the Wild: Waggit starts the trilogy as a scared and lost puppy recently abandoned by his owner. As the trilogy goes on, he starts growing more into a more confident and powerful stray.
- Accidental Public Confession: After Olang accuses Waggit of attacking another human only for Lady Alona and Felicia to defend him, Tazar starts being suspicious of Olang's lie. Olang protests that he should check Silver Tree Bend and check for pawprints, which leads his father to ask how he knows if he hadn't been there. Being found out, he starts accusing Felicia and Lady Alona of mentioning the place, but they reply that only Olang mentioned the place and had been colluding with Tashi to take over the park.
- The Aloner: Most loner dogs prefer being alone. Even Lady Alona, despite being a friend of the Tazarians, doesn't stay with the team and wanders on her own.
- Alpha Bitch: A literal example with Lady Alicia, an Afghan hound and the only purebred dog in Tazar's team. She may be pretty to look at, but she has an ugly attitude and a very screechy voice. That being said, later books do show her with some redeeming qualities, like calling Lug a good dog during Lug's funeral.
- Antagonistic Offspring: In Waggit's Tale, Tazar has puppies with a female loner, and he takes in the son named Olang after his sister dies. Come Waggit Again, however, and Olang becomes spoiled from Tazar grooming him to be leader in his place, bullying the other dogs and taking credit for their accomplishments. Waggit returning to the team doesn't suit well for Olang, who feels shunted whenever Tazar praises Waggit. He finally betrays the team and takes control of Tashi's team after Tashi is killed while Tazar wants nothing more to do with him.
- Berserk Button:
- Tazar hates the idea of dogs becoming pets to humans and tells Waggit that the word "master" is never to be used.
- Waggit also hates being called a scaredy-cat.
- Big Brother Mentor: While Waggit learns the lifestyle of the park dogs, Raz and Cal take on a big brother role to help him learn along the way.
- Big Fun: Gordo the retriever is the fattest dog in Tazar's team and is a pretty jolly dog.
- Bodyguard Crush: Gordo is in love with Lady Magica and protects her to impress her.
- Book Ends: The first chapter of the first book, Waggit's Tale, has the recently abandoned and nameless Waggit being approached by Tazar as the big black dog invites the small white puppy to live with his team. The last chapter of the third and final book, Waggit Forever, has Waggit comforting a little puppy abandoned by her owner and inviting her to join his team. These chapters are even called "Lost And Found".
- Cassandra Truth: When Olang accuses Waggit of attacking a human (saying that the dog who attacked a human was white), Waggit tries saying that he's innocent, but Tazar refuses to listen. Fortunately, Lady Alona and Felica arrive to confirm that the white dog was a different dog, and Olang makes the mistake of letting slip that he knew the exact place where the attack happened, helped the other dog in the attack, and willingly sided with Tashi.
- Cowardly Lion: Lug is a scared and lonely dog subverting the "scary pit bull" stereotype, but he willingly goes with Waggit to New York City and even ferociously fights Tashi while saving Waggit...even dying after he finally kills Tashi.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Waggit's owner leaves him behind at a farm, apparently never coming back, leading Waggit to believe that she's abandoned him and that he wants nothing to do with her. When Felicia meets up with the woman (named Ruth) in the park, Ruth explains that she had been asked to perform on a three-month cruise in place of another singer who couldn't make it, but since there were no dogs allowed on the cruise, Ruth couldn't take Waggit with her. She didn't want to put him in a kennel, so she had to leave him at her brother's farm, only to be dismayed to discover that Waggit had run away. Waggit feels horrible for not considering that in the first place.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Tazar is a big black dog who can look intimidating, but he's a good-hearted dog who looks after his team well, though he can be arrogant at times. His son Olang, on the other hand...
- Dirty Coward: When Tashi's first team is taken away by dogcatchers, Tashi deliberately leaves them behind, saying that he has to look after number one. This ticks Tazar off, and he tells him off for putting himself before the dogs who trusted him.
- Dog Stereotype:
- Subverted with Lug the pit bull. He's first seen being attacked by three men for being part of a dangerous breed, but Lug himself is far from dangerous. That being said, he does keep up with Waggit during their journey to New York City and fights Tashi himself at the cost of his own life to protect them.
- Played straight, however, with Tashi himself. Like Lug, Tashi is also a pit bull, but he often attacks humans to keep them away from his territory.
- Downplayed with Cal. He's mentioned to have German shepherd in him, but other than being protective of Waggit alongside Raz, there's not much shepherd traits he shows.
- Downer Beginning: At the end of Waggit's Tale, Waggit ends up being happily adopted by an old woman. But right at the start of Waggit Again, he's abandoned again at a farm far away from New York City, chained up and abused by several dogs.
- First Snow: When Waggit experiences his first winter, he's amazed at all the snow that's fallen. He even wishes that the snow would stay forever.
- Glad I Thought of It: One thing the Tazarians dislike about Olang is that he takes credit for catching food that he took from other dogs, as well as locating their new home on his own when he was actually in a patrol who found it.
- God of Good: The Gray Ones are spirit wolves who help dogs in need and watch over them. One Gray One helps Waggit twice in finding a new home and solving the mystery of a curse. When Waggit mentions that Lowdown had wanted to see a Gray One before he died, the Gray One appears to Lowdown in his sleep and has a friendly conversation with him, fulfilling the old dog's dream.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Olang is insanely jealous of Waggit getting more of Tazar's attention, so he tries to have him banished by framing him for a crime. When he gets banished instead, he growls spitefully at Tazar that it was because of him favoring Waggit that caused him to side with Tashi.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: The dogs have plenty of their own words for what goes on in Central Park and the surrounding city. They even call other animals such names as "curlytails" (squirrels) and "scurries" (rats).
- Horrible Judge of Character: While Olang bullies the other dogs in his pack, Tazar only sees the good side of him when they exchange idea. Thus, he refuses to hear any criticisms about Olang, even reasonable criticisms. Only when Olang frames Waggit for attacking a human and colluding with Tashi does Tazar open his eyes to his son's aggressive behavior, banishing him from the team.
- Humans Are Bastards:
- Tazar holds contempt for Uprights (dog term for human) for keeping dogs as pets. He even remarks at one point that Uprights can't stand living with animals that they can't control. Waggit, however, slowly learns that not all Uprights are not bad, including Felicia (the woman who speaks dog and helps Waggit get back to the park) and Ruth (the music-loving woman who never abandoned him in the first place).
- Eventually, Tazar sheds this attitude after Felicia takes him to the vet, who performs a surgery on him after he's hit by a car. He finally accepts that there are good humans and actually declares that he wants to see the vet again, which the team considers going a little too far.
- Identical Stranger: Lug the pit bull looks almost exactly like Tashi, only he's more plump and timid. Even the other dogs in Tazar's team remark on how alike the two are in looks.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Waggit's best friend is an old short-legged dog named Lowdown, who's shown enough patience and affection to walk with the younger dog around the park.
- It's All My Fault: Waggit Forever has Waggit believing that moving to the new park was a bad idea, from Alona being sick to their water supply running out, because of believing in the "Curse of Damnation Hill". It takes a talk from a Gray One to convince him that there's a way to combat the curse.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Biedel is a big hulking dog who growls at Waggit for crossing into his territory, but he does allow the Tazarians to help themselves to food from the nearest food source. The "heart of gold" part comes into play when Biedel and his team escort the Tazarians to their new home, even wholeheartedly supporting them after Tazar saves his life.
- Like a Son to Me: Tazar considers Waggit as this, keeping watch over him ever since he was a puppy, and even says that he could succeed him as leader one day. However, this ends up grinding the gears of Tazar's actual son, Olang, who doesn't hide his contempt for Waggit and even tries to have him driven out. When he's finally exiled, Olang sarcastically hints for Tazar to really adopt Waggit as his son, and Tazar quite literally does so.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Though Tazar and Olang are father and son sharing the same black fur, they're as different as day and night. Tazar is a noble and caring team leader who can be pompous at times, while Olang is a spoiled and traitorous dog who helps Tashi's team attack humans.
- Meaningful Name: Waggit gets his name from his long wagging tail, named accidentally by Lowdown and picked upon by Gordo.
- Must Make Amends: Realizing that the woman who adopted him in Waggit's Tale never meant to abandon him, Waggit silently makes it up to her by bringing her two sick puppies to take to the vet and adopt.
- Mutual Kill: Tashi and Lug end up killing each other near the end of Waggit Again.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When things go wrong at the new park in Waggit Forever, Gruff gripes, "This is what comes of listening to uppity young dogs that think they're leaders and their big ideas about change." Waggit knows that this is directed at him since he was the one to suggest going with Biedel to the new park and feels bothered by it.
- Noble Wolf: Waggit Forever introduces the Gray Ones, spirit wolves who watch over and help ordinary dogs. Waggit encounters a Gray One while searching for a good camp for his team, and Lowdown gets his chance to see one.
- Parental Substitute: Lady Magica becomes the new mother to two lost puppies named Little One and Little Two. They almost try with two more loner puppies in Waggit Again, but they can't survive long without milk since they're younger than Little One and Little Two were, and they almost die of sickness before Waggit and Magica take them to Ruth for her to adopt.
- Pounds Are Animal Prisons: The dogs in the park believe that no dog ever returns from the pound, which they call the "Great Unknown". They're pretty surprised when Waggit comes back to say goodbye in Waggit's Tale, thinking that he was gone forever.
- Put on a Bus: After the meeting between Tazar and Olang, Olang and his team never appear again (though a few dogs from Olang's team make an appearance or two).
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: During the journey to New York in Waggit Again, Lug is the cautious and sensitive dog, not wanting to fight, while Waggit is the more daring and determined dog, doing whatever it takes to get back home.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: In Waggit Again, Waggit encounters a woman named Felicia who can perfectly understand what he's saying. Along the way, Felicia reveals that she learned to speak dog and other animal language from an old woman, who teaches her that dogs and humans once communicated together but had lost the connection.
- Spoiled Brat: Olang grows up spoiled and already taking charge due to Tazar grooming him to be the next leader of the team. The other dogs don't like him, yet they do as he says or else Olang will tell lies about them to Tazar.
- Stray Animal Story: The trilogy tells of a gang of dogs living in Central Park, with Waggit going from a stray puppy to a confident stray.
- Those Two Guys: Raz and Cal, two young male dogs who are best friends and always hunt together.
- Was Too Hard on Him: Throughout their journey back to Central Park, Waggit acts rather irritable at Lug's timid personality. But after Lug dies fighting Tashi, he feels guilty for having thought of him as irritating.
- You Are in Command Now: Before leaving for the new park, Tazar says that if he doesn't make it, Waggit will become the new leader. It takes a while for Tazar to reuinite with the team, so Waggit takes control, doing okay for the most part. When Tazar returns, he reassumes leadership but counts on Waggit afterwards to lead alongside him.
