And now we have two

When I went out this morning to check on our late-sleeping tortoise, I saw a tortoise walking around in the pen -- and it was her! Tortoise #1 wasn't up yet, but tortoise #2 was up and out of her burrow at last. I was SO glad we didn't have to dig up her burrow. Best for her to come out on her own.

A few minutes later, tortoise #1 emerged from the other burrow. Apparently even though they spent the winter in one burrow, they've decided to separate for spring. Or maybe it was just that night.

Anyway, here is tortoise #2 having her first dousing of the season:

As you can see, she wasn't terribly impressed by the hydration process. After a bit, Rocket Boy came out to see her and he decided she needed a real bath, a scrubbing. I pointed out that tortoises in the wild don't ever have scrubbings, but he was not interested. He filled a big tub with warm water and proceeded to wash all the dirt off her with a scrub brush.

Then we fixed up a little tub of cool water and set it in the sun and her in it. Here she is having her second swim (or third, if you count the scrubbing), while two little people look on.

After a while she walked out of this bath, so we put her back in her pen, upon which she promptly went back down in her burrow. I didn't blame her!

But a few hours later she came up again, and she and tortoise #1 basked in the late afternoon sun. Ah, the life of a tortoise. Little do they know they're soon to move to new homes. We will miss them when they go.