Yeeha!!!

[W Shaw]

Thanks to @Tom 's advice about the bathtub, Mr. "I hate soaking" Ronan has decided he actually LIKES it. The last couple he's seemed relaxed in and sipped a little. Tonight, he walked to his water dish (clean except for the substrate he'd just kicked into it) & studied it, looking a little unhappy, then stared at me. I thought it was because he'd made a big hump of substrate next to it, making it hard to enter from that angle. so I picked him up, smoothed it out and set him back down. He did the same thing again, then turned and half-approached me. Back to the dish, Back to me. Finally it clicked. So I made up a bath. set him in it and he immediately stretched out, dunked his head a few times, swam around in it, stood up and dunked his head a few more times. Obviously a happy tortoise. Big move forward on two fronts -- his willingness and ability to communicate his needs, and the end of the bath wars.