I'm not the world's biggest animal person. I like other people's cats for the most part (and sometimes their dogs, if they don't bite), I'm just a little hesitant to have something I have to take care of.

However, lately, I've been thinking about getting a cat. My bf, who I live with, travels for work quite a bit, and, to be honest, it gets pretty quiet around the house. I also work from home, so ditto. It might be nice to have a cat around.

Since there seem to be a lot of cat lovers here on TE, I thought I'd ask you a few questions.

1. Where do you keep the litter box? This is my biggest concern: I don't want my house to smell yucky.
1a. Does anyone use a fancy self-cleaning litter box? Do those things really work? I'm willing to invest.

2. Inside cat or outside cat? Inside cat probably gets to live longer, outside cat probably has more fun; I'm interested in opinions.

3. I'm noticing a lot of people feed their cats canned food. Is it actually better for the cats than dry food? I don't particularly like the smell of canned food (notice a theme?), but if dry food is really bad for the cat...

4. How do you pick a nice cat? I'd prefer a cat that purrs and snuggles to a cat that hisses and bites, please.

5. Is there a trick to keep the cats from destroying furniture? I would never declaw a cat, that's just cruel. (Even I know that, and I'm a pet moron.) Can you get their nails filed or something? Or will one of those cat playgrounds solve the problem?

Thanks in advance.