Splish Splash

Giving a wild animal a bath is no game.

Sure, it's lots of fun, but I assure you it was not trivial.
Firstly, I'm not sure Tails or I got the most wet.  I'm still soaking wet, and there are large splashes of water in my bathroom ceiling.
Secondly, this little fuzzball can have some pretty strong opinions on stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I did not have any illusions that I was bathing her in order to make her clean. She was already pretty clean, and does an excellent job of that on her own.
It was entirely a trust building exercise, so she learns that I won't randomly drown her.  She likes it just so, and I'm still learning, but I'm also making it clear to Tails that, in the end, it's my bathtub and it is in my bathroom.

Yes, she absolutely has a mind of her own, and while refreshing, it is also a bit of an adjustment.  I think it's as big of an adjustment to her as well, and she looks quite puzzled at some of my demands.

She has spent a few days with me now, and she is absolutely warming up to the cuddles, but also accepting more and more that I'm in charge.  I have no illusions that she'll be anything like a pet dog, as she is absolutely a wild animal, but she seems to accept that at my place, I'm the one that makes the rules and choices.
Of course, I'll make those choices based on what I know Tails likes to do, and I'm not about to feed here a pile of old socks for dinner, but sometimes I just have to put some weight in my voice and tell her to do as I want.  So far, it has gone over rather well.  For example, she seems to understand quite well when she has something I want and I tell her to give it up.  I just hope I'm clear enough that she trusts I'm not just bossing her around, but that I'm starting to genuinely care about her and how she feels.

She quite enjoyed being shampooed, I think.  It certainly sounded like she enjoyed it.  I did accidentally splash water in her eye at one point, which was not at all popular, but she seems to understand it was not on purpose and I didn't mean to do it.  She also has a small cut that stings a bit if I'm not very careful when handling that area, and I slipped up a little when rinsing her off, so she gave a small yelp.  I felt awful about it, and she seemed to understand it was not at all intentional.  No claws and no biting, at least, but there was a little sulking involved.  A bit of cuddling and her good mood came back.  I try to be all cuddly and warm instantly to show that if I do hurt her, and it's not in a corrective sort of way, that I truly didn't mean for it to happen.

Her favorite part, I think, was having her back washed.  She really does love a good back scratch. Being dried off with the towel is a close second, it seems.

As far as discipline goes, she seems to be warming up to my taking over a little more from her current owner.  I try to do things the way her current owner wants it done for now, and gradually introduce little changes to the way I want things to be.  Tails seems to be very aware of the shift, and that's just how I want it.  I don't want to trick her into anything, but I want to show her that while I care about her as much as her current owner does, things will be slightly different if I'm in charge.
I don't want to change Tails, or even influence her much, but if this is going to work she has to accept some rules and limitations.