Hi and thank you, thank you, thank you for your suggestions.

I'm slow getting back online due to being exhausted and yesterday I shopped for STUFF.

We (me and the additional noses) determined that the smell is coming from one particular vent and the vent (in my living room) is on the wall but near the ceiling so that eliminates several possibilities...

Here is what has happened so far:
1) I called "Duct Doctors" to come in and clean my duct work (varmit removal) - they are supposed to come tomorrow morning but I'm not sure if they will show or not - long story.
2) I bought a "jug" of vinegar
3) bought some stuff that is supposed to be good to spray on urine smells
4) I went to Sam's and bought odor ban (almost never found it)
5) I bought 2 new "hooded" litter boxes for my kitties
6) I have changed the 2 filters (they were filthy !!!!) bad me...
7) I sprayed (saturated) the 2 new / clean filters with a cinnamon spray made for filters (that I had from several years back).
9) Checked all around the area of the litter boxes for accidental kitty messes, found nothing but mopped under and around the boxes "repeatedly" with lysol just in case.

My plan, is as follows:

1) Open all the windows tomorrow (yes, it is cold here) I will work from home wrapped in blankets and lots of clothes - but I have to air out the cinnamon STENCH that I now have throughout the entire home. I basically "fogged" my home in cinnamon. I had to change the filters a second time to remove the cinnamon saturated stinking filters. That happened only after sleeping in the cinnamon stench over night, I woke with my eyes burning, cinnamon smell stuffed up my nose and I smelled the cinnamon all day long at work. I even asked my co-workers if I was smelling like cinnamon - I was embarrassed - it was all bad... That is an experience that I don't care to repeat !!!!

2) Replace the litter boxes with the new boxes and either toss the current boxes or clean with vinegar and set aside for a while to see if they smell and just cycle the boxes periodically

3) Set a small container of vinegar and and a box of baking soda back in the litter box area

4) When the house seems free of the cinnamon stink - close the windows, turn my heat back on and see if I still smell the original stink.

5) If the original stink is still there (I imagine it is), then hopefully the duct people will get the culprit (if they come).

6) Spray the vent with the odor ban from Sam's

7) if possible - maybe I could put some vinegar/ baking soda in that vent area

There were some other suggestions and products that were mentioned that I have yet to investigate but thank you - if all this does not resolve my problems - I will formulate plan B.

Although - at this point, plan B may be a clothes pin for my nose that somebody suggested to me !!!

I will keep you posted on the "snoodles stink" problem and thanks again for all the help !!!

I'm thinking a mouse, but maybe a chipmunk or a squirrel...
Snoods

If you've got cats (or other pets) in the house this will affect them in much the same way it does you.....but they are much more sensitive to the irritants in these products. I read an article about using various household scents/air fresheners and the health issues that they cause with inside pets. I'd have never thought about it....but now I do and I only use all natural, pet-friendly products if I use anything at all.

I hope the duct cleaners show up!

sounds like you are making some progress, and bringing in the pros is a good thing. nothing worse than digging through an attic to find the mousie that died. Those kitties cats need to be given a pink slip for not hunting better. j/k mine would make a friend, and have him do a sleep over.

I bet you smell like Thanksgiving! (sorry, I couldnt resist.) I do hope all continues to get better.

Snoods, my son and I were making a chocolate soufle one night. We were having so much fun. So much in fact that I dropped a whole new obx of cocoa powder.

It hit the floor and the powder shot straight up in the air..into the intake, while the heat was on.

I was thankful we were renting the townhouse. Clean up was a pain.

But a couple of years later after we bought a house, I had a small kitchen fire.

The weather was warm. I had all the windows open, ceiling fans on. ( 2 story house)

I had a fire extinguisher right there, so I used it. Fire out. All that powderey stuff from the extinguisher went into every room on both floors. Stuck in every nook and craney and bump on the textured wall and ceilings.

Took me 2 weeks of full time cleaning to clean that up.

good luck getting the cinnamon gone.