Short-hair cats are the bomb. they are good for allergies. they still shed a lot during spring, but i've seen allergic people do relaly well.
To avoid the lemon there are a couple things you can do:
1) get a kitten and make sure you give it lots of attention and pick it up while it's growing up so it's used to people. but everyone wants a kitten, and there are so many unwanted cats out there.
2) (better) go to the pound and check out the cats.just hang out with them. YOu can get a feel for whether they deal with peopel or not.
3) or maybe a friend has a cat that they can't keep for wahtever reason. then you have, like, a reference.