2004 Not going to READY after new 12V battery

Hello experts and the rest of us!
I actually have 3 Prius's (a 2002, a 2003, and a 2004, each currently inoperable for various reasons). I do know my way around the battery system fairly well now, having rebuilt at least 4 of those battery packs as well as other times that I had to access the cells for troubleshooting.
My 2004 model has been the most reliable and we have registered it and keep it in NY where we have a seasonal cabin. I have experienced numerous problems over the past 6-8 years due to the seasonal nature of its use and storage for months at a time, but I generally can get it back up and running each visit without too much trouble (it used to be the 12V battery was the main trouble due to something constantly discharging the battery very slowly, so now I disconnect the 12V battery when I am going to leave it for a month or more.) Having said that, I figured my 12V battery was the culprit again, having a 54% charge when I got up here and reconnected it this trip. So I charged it overnight and got it back up to 100% (per my rinky-dink battery charger). But the car still would not go into READY.
But I figured the battery might still be the culprit (my load tester died a few years ago) after some other troubleshooting in our remote dirt road location, and I got my brother-in-law to take me to Walmart for a replacement (just to mention, I gave up on the expensive and wimpyToyota mini-batteries years ago since they don't last long and are hard to access--I now have a standard car battery in the rear compartment that is easier to access when the battery is disconnected or dead--the rear hatch of course won't open without power to the latch lock! I did lose some trunk space, but it's well worth it with my multiple extended storage periods each year and has proven to be a very successful modification.)
Anyways, the new battery did not fix the situation. And I even went ahead and charged the new one overnight to get to 100% charge per my charger (the new battery was definitely not the freshest, being many months old per the sticker date).
Reading other posts on this site and others, I created a checklist of additional troubleshooting which I have now exhausted, short of going into the traction battery again. But I don't believe it is the traction battery this time--my energy gage is telling me it has 6 of 8 bars charge (about as high as it ever gets). I also am getting a clicking from the battery ECU when I hold the Start button down--coincidentally, the READY lite flashes when I hold the Start button down.
I've pressed the brake harder than necessary.
All fuses seem to be good including the AM2, fusible link and 7.5A Ignition--I haven't actually put a continuity tester on them, but they definitely aren't blown.
The oil level in the engine is good.
I've removed the negative battery cable for 5 minutes to up to 24 hours multiple times in the past week--that's supposed to reset the ECU, but not for me.
Short of the traction battery being a problem (unlikely in my opinion since that battery is only 2-3 years old now and it's registering good on the Energy panel), I think I may have a problem with the computer thinking the car is out of gas--that was the only other thing that some experts noted about the Prius. My gas gage IS INDEED blinking on the last one bar. I NEVER leave a vehicle in the winter tundra of NY with no gas in it, but it is possible that someone might have siphoned gas out in my absence. So I put the entire contents of a 5 gallon can of gas into the tank. STILL NO JOY, and the gas gage still blinks on the last bar. My experience is that the gas gage sometimes takes a little while to register a tank refill, especially if you don't put much in. So I went and got another 5 gallons and this time the tank was overflowing with just the first gallon--so it is definitely full (perhaps too full, which might be another future problem based on some posts I've read during the course of this mishap). My fuel gage is still blinking on the last single bar (effectively not registering any fuel), so I'm thinking the stupid computer also thinks the car is empty and maybe that's what is causing the car not to go into READY??
I just learned that the fuel tank might have a bladder--what a dumb idea IMHO unless some designer thought the Prius might need to do aerial maneuvers, barrel rolls or inverted driving?!?!? So perhaps my bladder finally gave up due to the severe upstate NY winter weather? But this winter wasn't that terrible following the Christmas blizzard, which we were up here experiencing in person and we drove the Prius a few days later.
Is there some way to reset, inspect and/or replace the gas gage sender? That's all I can figure...

 

I will try to get and upload a video of the start attempts. YES, something made a nest in the glove box--all kinds of that grey and multi-color cotton-like insulation in there from some other part of the car obviously. Geez, if they chewed on a wire I am not looking forward to that chase and fix. I don't have a code reader up here with me, so I ordered another one (Mini VCI TIS ODB2 that is specific to Toyota) which will arrive Monday or Tuesday.

 

Okay, my 257MB video file is too large to upload directly. He re are some pix of my dash and the glove box nest. I guess it seems very likely the critter may have chewed one or more wires that is causing the ECU to not get data on something it needs.

 

Well that dash pic was surprisingly not what I was seeing. Tried again with a shorter video (<24MB) but still too big to upload so here's another still shot that isore reflective of what I am seeing. My traction battery level has decreased from 6 bars to 3 bars over the past day with my attempts to get the ready on.

 

Thanks Chapman, SFO, and Edthefox (aptly named member to assist with this problem). It's raining today (typically an all-day event up here in the north country) and my code reader won't arrive until at least Monday afternoon or Tuesday. The wires to the controller located outboard right side of the glove box all seem to be in good condition--just a nest in the glove box and some additional debris on top of the cabin air filter but clean down into the fan. Nothing obvious up in the engine compartment but I will inspect much closer tomorrow after the rain has cleared. I did see some other posts pointing to the Inverter Cooling Pump and maybe there is some view-hole or cap to remove to see if the fluid is moving around? Doesn't seem like the ABS brake pump should be part of the ICE start equation, but then again the Toyota designers decided to put a bladder in the gas tank so I guess anything is possible.
Oh yes, about the water intrusion in the back hatch area--YES indeed I have had problems in the past, which led to at least one of the battery rebuilds. I never found the exact water entry point, but I did detect places where the drips were coming down along the right roof pillar support and dripping on the rear wheel well close to the HV battery, so a few years ago I rigged some tape and plastic to redirect the water back to where the 12V battery USED TO BE (I have a standard car battery now which of course won't fit in that tiny hole). I also removed the rubber drain hole plugs from both sides of the car in those positions--not big enough to let critters in, but enough to drain any water that collects.

 

Thanks again Ed and everyone. Got my MIN-VCI J2534 cable and a CD from eBay FINALLY yesterday. I paid a little bit more because I'm in NY and the cable only had to come from NJ (rather than others that would be coming clear across the country). All had an estimated delivery range of Monday-Wednesday, but I fully expected the nearer supplier to get it to me faster--WRONG, per the tracking the cable spent 4 days running around different places in NJ before ever leaving the state! Anywho, I get the cable (with a CD!) and then I have to hunt around for an old laptop that can read CD's. Finally get one up and running, and the CD is blank!! Geez, so I sent the seller a message for help, as well as searched online for a place to download it--there's a site that claims to have it, which sends me to some MEGA site for the download but the file has been removed or doesn't exist--this is the case for both the V17 and V16 (versions I believe). Anyone know how/where I can get the TIS software?

 

And I did perform the wire jumper test to get blinking codes--not yet sure what the 32 means for the ABS light, but the other is a pointer to ECB light blinking. The ECB light has 3 codes, one that points to the ABS blinking, one regarding 12V power to the braking system, as well as code 58 which requires ECU investigation with the scan tool.

 

My computer won't let me go to the blog.odbii365 website--says it's unsecure/unsafe and someone may be trying to steal my information.
The eBay seller responded that their product may be having problems and they will refund me and I don't even have to return the product. Great, I lost 8 days on that venture but I still have the cable which I'm not so sure is inoperable--I just can't seem to get the Techstream loaded. Gonna try to load it onto an old Windows XP laptop (that seems to be what is the problem I may have with the version of TIS I have on this Windows11 laptop--when I run the .exe program it get to a point where a Virtual Machine is starting Windows XP when it aborts the program) I know absolutely nothing about Oracle and Virtual Machines running on a computer, so I am just taking a stab that a WinXP computer will do better...
Spending a lot of time on this tangent--what was my original mission??? Oh yeah, I'm just trying to get error codes so I can tackle the REAL PROBLEM with my Prius