When the Animal House first opened its doors in 2005, Aubrey and Dan Martin ran the business from the house they were living in.

Now, almost 10 years later, the healthy pet food store and animal supply store has expanded just as the Martin family has. When the store opened in 2005, there was just Dan and Aubrey in a house where they lived. Now, there's three kids, 4,000 square feet, and coming soon, a second location.

Martin announced recently that the Animal House, which has one location in Damariscotta, will open a second location at 51 Main Street, Westbrook.

“We're not leaving Damariscotta,” Martin said. “We just felt that the time was right to expand to a bigger market.”

Martin said the Westbrook store, which will have a soft opening Nov. 15, enters a landscape vastly different than when the Damariscotta store arrived.

For one, she said, there were no other pet food stores in the region offering all-natural and holistic options when the first location opened. There are similar offerings in Portland, but in Westbrook there's a vacuum, Martin said.

“There's nothing like (Animal House) in the suburbs, and Westbrook has 10 times the population (of Damariscotta) in a 10-mile radius,” she said. “We checked around to make sure there were no other independents (pet food and supply stores that offered a similar service) so we wouldn't be stepping on toes. We actually looked at a number of locations — Augusta, Lewiston, Bangor.

“But Westbrook just made the most sense.”

While the Damariscotta location has partnered with organizations such as Underhound Railroad and the Lincoln County Animal Shelter, the new location will likely seek a similar relationship with Animal Refuge League, Martin said.

“We're looking to bring back Woofstock, and we'll still have the 12 Woofs of Christmas,” she said. “So there will be some familiar events hopefully returning.”

The new store will offer flexibility in the long-run, Martin said, which means a lot with three kids eight years old and younger.

“It's amazing to think that we're opening up a second store,” she said. “My husband is a programmer, and he does the ads, website, marketing. I was coming from a retail background. I had worked at small stores and the big box stores like Petsmart.

“When we started here there were no other businesses like it. There was Ames (True Value, in Wiscasset) and Louis Doe's (in Newcastle) but noting quite like what we were trying to do. Our goal was to have no chemicals or fillers in any of the food we sold.”

The business was started during a strong economy, and did well, but what really sent the Animal House on its upward trajectory and from its second location (at the top of the hill where the Lincoln County Democrats are now located) to the plaza abutting Yellowfront Grocery, was the dog food scare of the late 2000s.

“In 2007 there were a lot of recalls on dog foods that were coming over from China,” Martin said. “For us that was a huge turning point, because we didn't carry any of those (pet food brands) anyways. I think a lot of people put their trust in us, and that we thought (the other kind of food) was a ticking time bomb.”

The business, fueled more by locals than summer tourists, kept expanding until the second spot was sought.

The new space won't be as large — 2,800 feet in Westbrook compared to the 4,000 feet in Damariscotta — but it will serve as a testbed of sorts. Because of the space limitations it won't have the self-wash station like the original location, but Martin said the new spot will use advanced software to track and inventory sales.

“It's actually easier to just start doing it down there first, and then bring it back up here,” she said. “We made the mistake of not doing it last time, but we'll incorporate it right from the start this time.”