2:09 PM EST

It's been four hours since I locked the kittens up in their dog crate. I'm not sure if it's worse on them or me. I went into their room to check on them at 12:30pm and in the two plus hours they'd been in their crate, they already made a huge mess. The small water dish was empty and coated with clay cat litter, the baby food dish had litter in it, too and little Elmo had litter stuck to his tail, paws and belly. At least I saw the KMR was all gone and it looked as though it had been eaten. A good sign.

Elmo needed to get cleaned up, so I took him into the bathroom. It was the first time he left the foster room and he was scared. I felt him trying to hide under my chin as I walked down the hallway. When I opened the door to the bathroom, the hinges whined a bit and that really scared him. I spoke quietly to reassure him and held him close.

Once we got to the sink, I ran the water slowly, as to make as little sound as possible. He relaxed a bit, or so I thought. Within a few moments he began to tremble. As soon as the water was warm, I made a puddle at the bottom of the sink and placed Elmo's back left paw into the water. I didn't want to upset him further so once his paw was wet I removed it from the water and used my wet hand to guide the clay litter residue off him. I also wrapped him up in a fluffy towel and that helped to soothe his anxiety.

He was clean in a few minutes and I was able to place him back with his siblings in the dreaded dog crate. Of course, the second he was back in the crate, he jumped into the litter pan and made another mess. I'll give him another hour or so before I re-bathe him, if needed. I wish this was over and done already! I'm determined to get them to eat, so I will wait.

...and Mama-cat hates my guts. What else is new?