Rosemary, welcome to pet talk, and like it already has been stated, we hope that you come back here often.
As far as keeping a pet cat at home, have you thought of these?: (1) Either build or purchase a cat tree, and place it inside some place where she can hide and call her own little private place, say, something that is about 6ft. tall (2 meters), (2) Adopt another furkid, for her to befriend and for company . (3), Keep some cat grass inside so she can nibble on it. (4) treat her with some special cat treats or food (such as tuna) once in a while. On this last item, my furkids go crazy over hot pizza and BBQd' chicken. I have to fight them off in order to eat my meal of, especially, these two. I hope this helps.
Thanks for the insight of dumping or spreading their litter, and placing one's dirty laundry, outide in order to bring them back inside. I had never heard nor thought of these.:)
........wayne