We have an indoor/outdoor cat, but we now live in the country and it's necessary to control the rodent issues.

When we got him though, we lived in the suburbs. In fact, we got him because DH wanted a pet that was 'his' and my dog was NOT dog friendly. We opted for a cat.

We picked one from a shelter that was very young. He was also extremely timid. This worked for us. 1) he was so young that he quicklly adjusted to the dog. The dog was fine with the cat once she learned that the cat was now a part of the family. We never had another issue. 2) he was so timid that he was terrified of even going outside!

Once he got the hang of going outside with us as attendents, he started to learn to go on his own but he never left the back deck. Then he advanced beyond the deck into the yard. He never left our yard and only once went to the neighbors when we'd accidently left him out in a rain storm and he needed a dry place to hide (under their shed). He did bring us the occasional mouse, but never any birds. We've since learned that his vision is off. He can't catch birds because his depth perception is wrong! He can only catch animals that he can corner!!

Now he's been with us 5 years. He's terrified of cars, stays near to the house even in the country and he won't even come out from under the bed when the coyotes are in the area.

We've never had a scratching problem (he does it outside) and he no longer even has a litter box because now he uses the dog door. We did keep a box for him in our other homes but it would reside in the spare bathroom and I don't think we had a smell issue. We did have trouble with keeping the dogs out of the litter box though - THAT sucked.

He is still absolutely a PITA though. I think that's part of being a cat (and clearly skewed by my opinion since I'm definitely a dog person).