Mysterious critters

Sometimes, I come into the kitchen and find Collette sitting on the floor, staring up at the exhaust fan/vent with rapt fascination.

The old-fashioned Air King seems to elicit the same response among my friends: "My grandma has that same fan in her kitchen!"

I've never used it all that much, since I've never previously had an exhaust fan. Really, I only flip it on when the smoke detector (the one too close to the stove) goes off.

But increasingly over the past couple weeks, Collette's interest has been piqued by rustling and rattling coming from within the fan. My guess is that some critter is trying to build a nest in the vent part that protrudes outside. I went out to investigate it a couple weekends ago, but learned just how high up it is - I didn't think about my house effectively sitting half a story above ground level. At the time, the ground was much too icy to consider safely using my ladder to climb up and have a look. Now, the ground's too soft and muddy - I don't think I could stabilize the ladder sufficiently to be safe.

Too bad I can't just send Collette up there. I'm sure she'd take care of the uninvited guest, lickity-split.