Welcome!! I can answer your questions...we have four cats in our 2 bedroom apartment and with my very sensitive nose....I sure can give you some pointers for sharing your apartment with one sweetie.

1. Your apartment will be very safe, as long as you keep kitty inside. Especially that high up.

2. You have a ton of room for one cat. Cats like small, confined places to sleep and hide. All they need is SOMEWHERE to run and from what you've discribed, you have well enough room for kitty to run and play.

3. Smell....first you need to start with the litter box. Covered litter boxes control initial order much better than non-covered. Here is a picture of a covered litter box:

This is actually the one we have.We have two of these and one uncovered that our newest cat is used to. We're switching to three covered boxes shortly.

Next, the litter. We've tried many different brands and we keep going back to "Fresh Step" because it is the best at containing the odors.

We have our litter boxes are in our den, right under a long window. Here is a picture of of Noah and Noel and one of the litter boxes on the left:

The fresh air really, really helps. So, if possible, put kitty's litter box somewhere around a window.

We keep candles in the den, just in case. I am a candle person, so its really just another excuse for me to light them. I find it helps some.

We also keep an air freshener in the room, close to the litter boxes.

Clean the litter box every day. If you find that you need to, do it twice a day.

My hubby's father is really critical towards us regarding the fact that we have four cats in our apartment. He came over a few weeks ago and commented that had he not seen the cats, he wouldn't have known we had them at all.

I hope this helped you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. There are a ton of really, really great people here that can offer alot of advice.

Can't wait to hear about your new kitty when you get him/her.