odd behaviour - toileting

[bruffin]

We think our rescue cat is 2 years old and we have had her a year.

We normally shut her in the dining room kitchen over night as she does like to come for a fuss and attention at 4am otherwise. She has a litter tray but for some reason stopped using it about 3 or 4 moths ago and just waits until we let her out in the morning.

a few days ago we came down and found she had pooed in her water bowl, and then I also found she had dug out the soil of the pot plant, which made sense as I assume she wanted to go in the soil, but the pot was too small and plant too big for her to use.

This morning I came down to find a puddle on the table and two of the chair cushions are wet, but the thing is they don't seem to smell of anything. I thought cat urine smelt really strong.

Why isn't she using her tray?

What is her tray like, how big, how high, covered?. When did you last clean it?

It's the same litter tray she has had since we got her over a year ago. She had not used it since before christmas but it hasn't been a problem as she started using outside instead.

it could be whats in the litter tray, if she was used to going outside try putting soil in the tray instead of litter, with our old cat we had to use sand or he would pee and poo any where but in the litter tray hth x

She hasn't done.it again. I did wonder if we hadn't put enough litter in the tray so I have put more in.