Problem with counting down

[davidwieler]

If the number goes up, say from 0 to 2000, it goes up and adds the numbers to the front as needed.
However, if you go down, it changes the leading numbers to zero, then when finished it just zaps them out.

For example, going from 2000 to 5 looks like this:
2,000
0,005
5

jsFiddle

Is there a way to have it remove the leading numbers if they end up being zero in the front?
So when it's counting down, have it remove the leading number if it turns into a "0" instead of just making them all zero's, then blasting them out at once.

As a side note, it seems as though odometer is not an active project anymore.....