Rescue League gets into the Halloween spirit with its Haunted Lantern Tours

Standing in the center of a candle-lit gazebo on the grounds of the Pine Ridge pet cemetery, a woman in a black cape shared her tale.

The four-legged ghost was howling and yipping at a pack of live coyotes, Bobbi Jo McClain told the group.

“We think it was just one of the residents being joyful and excited about the pack running through his territory,” she said, dismissing the haunting.

This ghost story was just one of many spooky tales told during last week’s Haunted Lantern Tour of the Dedham pet cemetery at 55 Anna’s Place. The event was hosted by the Animal Rescue League of Boston, which owns and operates the cemetery. It is the first time the organization has hosted such an event.

“Every year we think ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to do something with the cemetery around Halloween?’” said Lisa Lagos, who manages the Animal Rescue League’s animal shelter beside the Dedham cemetery.

This year, the league decided to go forward with the plan, and have the tour in the oldest section of the cemetery, so not to disrupt the area where animals have been recently buried.

“We don’t want to uproot any spirits,” said McClain, a shelter agent at Dedham’s Animal Rescue League.

Many stories along the tour melded history with macabre folklore.

McClain took the tour through crematorium, a home where the Animal Rescue League of Boston’s founder lived during the summer and the grave where Lizzie Borden’s dogs are buried.

Borden was a suspect in the much-publicized 1892 murder of her father and stepmother in Fall River. McClain said once a year fresh flowers and a dog biscuit mysteriously appear at the grave.

Dedham resident Andres Molano, 12, liked a story about the spirit of the Animal Rescue League of Boston’s founder, Anna Harris Smith, appearing in the home she used to live in inside the cemetery.

According to the ghost story, a shelter manager living in the home said she saw Smith walking in her bedroom and it appeared she had no feet. It turns out she did have feet, McClain said, but they couldn’t be seen because they were walking on the room’s original floor three feet below.

“I never thought a ghost would walk on the floor she remembered instead of the new floor,” Molano said.

His 10-year-old sister, Sara, said her favorite story was about a horse named Prescott who was buried after serving with the Boston Police Mounted Unit.

McClain said when Animal Rescue League employees walk homeless animals along Prescott’s grave, many of the horses stare off into the nearby woods as if they see his spirit.

Sara Malone also liked the way the tour was conducted.

“I like that it was kind of mysterious and you couldn’t predict, it” she said.

The Molanos’ mother, Nora Sotomayor, said she was glad to partake in such an interesting community event. She said the ghost stories should be compiled into a book.

“It’s a part of history and people should know about it,” she said.

One historical fact attendees learned is that the cemetery is the oldest pet cemetery in the United States that has been continuously operated by a humane society. Over 20,000 pets are buried in the cemetery.

The tour concluded with hot drinks and baked goods. The tour cost, $10 a person, with proceeds going toward the Dedham animal shelter that cares for close 100 animals.