BURLINGTON, Vt. (WFFF) — In the window display of Expressions on Burlington’s Church Street you will find plush dogs, some looking for a home. The owner of the store, Jessica Pomerleau-Halnon, died in August from breast cancer. Her cousin, Alexis Pomerleau said this window display is in her memory.
“It’s honoring her passion for the stores, all of the work that she put into creating these two beautiful businesses and also supporting her love of dogs,” said Alexis Pomerleau.
You can choose a stuffed animal from the display to “adopt.” All the money goes to The Jess Cares Fund at the Chittenden County Humane Society and Rescue Me Vermont.
“For me, I am also a dog lover, supporting the rescues has always been so important to me, and to be able to be a part of this for Jess as well,” said Alexis.
The President and CEO of the Humane Society, Joyce Cameron said the fund will provide financial resources for medical treatments for the real animals that come in.
“We have some pretty significant medical issues for animals that come in that need a lot of care and expensive treatment, so every dollar that we raise in the Jess cares fund will go directly to help those animals,” Cameron said.
When you adopt your plush animal, you can keep the name or choose your own. The price of the dog will depend on its size. After you pick out your dog, you will get an adoption certificate, you can put your pet’s name and date of adoption.
A few of the dogs in the window are named after family members’ pets.
“We have the husky here, Cinda, who was our family dog growing up, and obviously next to Jess we have Willard and Jackson her dogs,” said Alexis.
She says when people walk by the window, she hopes they feel joy.
“Jess just constantly executed joy, so to see people walk by smile, the children coming up to the windows, dogs bounding up to the windows and especially during this really hard time to bring people joy is so important to us, and then of course to honor Jess,” said Alexis.