Aw, amylou. I understand your ambivalence. I hope Peaches finds her way to a nice new home (and doesn't get stuck in the ceiling.)

I think I'm going to bring in my game camera,and have someone set it up in the ceiling to see what it is before I get maintenance involved. Still,in hope it just shoos.

We've had squirrels and a raccoon in the attic of our rental. The squirrels nest in the flexible air duct and destroy it. The raccoon didn't do so much damage, but it would run around in the walls at night. One tenant said he was scratching around just behind her headboard. *shudder*

Definitely find out what it is.

The sound of marbles rolling around could be the nuts the critter has stored.

Every fall I'd get raccoons in my attic. They would hop from the garage roof to the main house roof (a split-level) and get in the attic air vents. Finally a roofer patched up all the entrances and "Rocky Raccoon" and his pals moved on. They still get into my garbage cans which i do store outside.i.

We had a raccoon get in between the first and second floor from the garage. Had her babies. The smell was horrible, had to remove and replace the insulation, trap them, and seal everything.

Could be an extra terrestrial critter.

Squirrels. We had them at our former house. They can make a surprising amount of noise. And damage.

Squirrels or raccoons. Both can be very destructive and eat wiring. They chewed a hole in the peak of my Mom's roof and got in that way. Raccoon had babies up there. Finally got rid of them by fixing the area they were getting in. It was so creepy trying to sleep at night and hearing them scratching and moving around!

We heard 'something' in our attic or on our roof two nights in a row -- then nothing. Back again one night. Gone for a week. Louder than mice, which we have had in the attic and scrabbling when they've fallen between walls. (Years ago.)

We can't see evidence of any disturbance in the attic. We walked around the exterior of the house, looking high and low...nothing. It was about 40F when we heard noise. No noise during our below-freezing snap last week.

Do some animals have more than one 'residence'? We have had a lot more squirrels since summer. I'm blaming the vacant house across the creek that went into bank ownership this spring -- almost two acre lot without human activity. (Couldn't the critters be content staying over there? The situation could continue a LONG time with a foreclosure.)

I would say squirrels, too, although they can really sound as if they're in the attic even when they're just on the roof...

I did want to warn you, though....Last year we started getting a truly awful smell in the house that we couldn't figure out. We thought it was the plumbing, the septic...we had no idea until an electrician went in there. He said a squirrel (he figured) had chewed through some electric, got zapped and died in between the walls...well you can't move it. You would have to find it and then know where to cut the wallboard....he said most people just leave them. Decomposition is about a 2 week process... :(

Like chisue, we had checked and could find no evidence of any animal having made a home up there.

Just something to be cautious of, but as I said, even when they're ON the roof, it sounds like an elephant party, so hopefully that's just whats happening and they're not inside.

Good Luck!

AND you need to contact maintenance to plug their access to the attic space!

It sounds like squirrels to me too. We had so many get into our attic and had to have an exterminator come and remove them, patch up all the entrances through which they were getting into the attic. They sure are noisy critters. Let us know if and when you find out what is making the noise.

A couple of years after moving into my new house, we got squirrels in the attic. That's when I discovered they can be active at night. They had entered next to the chimney. The box structure that formed the gable end eve overhang did not fit tight against the chimney and allowed access.

if no chance it was MY cat and someone else's responsibility... maintenance is getting a call from me. possibly even a bit melodramatic call for emphasis.