Second Life: Beloved by thrifters and pet-lovers alike

Story & Photos by Dustin Timbrook

It’s a normal Saturday morning in autumn and a line of people is wrapped around the building at 1 North Clarendon Avenue. Bouncing on their heels, they chat enthusiastically about the strategies they’ll use when the double doors unlock at noon. To the uninitiated observer passing through Avondale Estates, this might look like a crowd queuing up for a hot collectible toy or a trendy brunch spot, but locals know it’s something much more exciting. This is Second Life, a hidden jewel for secondhand shoppers and a fundraising juggernaut for animal rescues.

“This is my favorite store in town, and if it ever closed I would be heartbroken,” said Anna Lovely, the twentieth shopper in line. “This place has treasures every time I come. It's just my favorite thing to do on Saturday.”

Second Life President Tanya Mahrous Tobias has heard this sentiment hundreds of times since opening the store in 2011 with her husband and co-founder Toby. “We are like the exclusive New York City nightclub for the middle aged,” she joked. “My vision when we created this was that it would be a fun, relaxed, atmosphere -- someplace that I would want to go. We call it upscale thrift.”

“Upscale” and “thrift” are not contradictory terms; Second Life demonstrates this fact through rigorous quality control standards and attractive pricing. Every donation to the group is thoroughly inspected and prepared for sale by a team of dedicated staff and volunteers, all of them animal lovers. In addition to being of great quality these goods are also priced to sell, typically marked at 40% of the listing price for similar items online. Whether patrons are toting 14 karat gold jewelry, 12-foot-tall Halloween skeletons, name brand clothes with the original price tags still attached, or stacks of beautiful books, shoppers tend to exit the store feeling like they hit the thrifting jackpot.

Customers also leave knowing their money went to a great cause. Since opening in 2011, the 501(c)(3) non-profit has awarded nearly $3 million dollars in grants to animal rescues, spay and neuter programs, and community outreach efforts. That fundraising success is the result of the founders’ passion for animals and their experiences in the corporate world. Tanya, a former airline supply chain manager, was inspired to open Second Life after a serendipitous visit to a similar store in her hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska.

“I was looking for something to do to help animals and live a more passionate life, and when I walked into that store the idea just kind of went off.” They figured, why not open their own rescue? “The financial pie for rescues is only so big,” Toby, a former corporate trainer, explained. “If we open a rescue everybody's slice gets a little bit smaller. So, how do we make the pie bigger?”

That mission is front of mind for most of the shop’s volunteers, donors, and bargain hunters. “We make the trip out here just because we know our donations matter,” said Michelle Hall, who regularly brings items from her home in Virginia-Highland.  “We love dogs… but our house is too small for more. So I figure if I have something to donate, it's worth a drive.”

Volunteer Lauren Green also chose to help out at Second Life when she wasn’t prepared to adopt. Healing from the loss of her own pet, Lauren turned to thrifting as an excuse to get out of the house. After several shopping excursions to the store she decided to get involved behind the scenes. “I feel like my heart would be kind of broken being hands-on with animals, I'm not ready for that yet. This is a different way to give back.”

Though volunteers may not meet the animals they’re helping, they regularly receive “Happy Tails” -- updates on the animals that have benefited from their work. Even after a decade and a half of work, these success stories still motivate Toby. “When you’re having a difficult day, you can see one of those Happy Tails come through and you’re like ‘Okay. Yeah, this is why we’re doing it.”

Second Life turns 15 in January of 2026, a milestone that they credit to the incredible community that has grown around their cause. “When we first opened, it was literally Tanya and our dog, Lucky. It's grown because of the team. She had the vision… but they made it happen,” Toby reflected.

“When we first opened we thought we would need to partition the store; it’s so big we're never going to fill it up,” Tanya remembered. “And now here we are. We need an expansion. We don't have any room for anything. It's been quite an amazing 15 year journey.”