Girl communicates with an old lady (ghost?) with a pet dalmatian. I read it 20+ years ago, I’m assuming it’s 100-200 pages long. There was a young girl who buried a bird, and maybe tied notes to trees. Found a passageway to a hazy, smoke-filled room covered in old throw pillows. An old lady was there dressed in ratty fancy clothes and gaudy jewelry with a long smoking stick. There was a dalmatian somewhere in there too. I think she communicated with the old lady by burying letters in the ground. Maybe she found the dalmatian dead at the end? I read it at the same time as “The BFG.” I was young so some of the details my be completely fabricated!! Hope you can help!