AT HOME WITH GINGER AND MASON

Mason and Ginger didn’t know what they were missing until they got a cat. One offhand “I think I want a cat” thought from Ginger led them to adopt Sachi, their sweet (and ridiculously cute) fluffball of a cat, who has brought so much joy to their lives. Fast forward to a few years later and this design-forward couple (she works in creative at Apple, he’s a pro skateboarder) has figured out the best upholstery to survive cat scratching and methods for reducing cat anxiety before they travel.

Read all about it in this conversation between Ginger and Smalls Creative Director Janis Ahn.

Janis: I know this is the broadest question in the world, but tell me about yourself.

Ginger: I'm Ginger, new last name Silva. I got married last year to my husband Mason. I'm from the west side of LA and that’s also where we met. Mason's from the west side, too. We met when we were 19, we're coming up on our 10-year anniversary. We lived on the west side together for a long time, then moved to Atwater Village a few years ago. Mason is a professional skateboarder. He would skateboard on the east side and I felt bad, because he would drive two to three hours everyday. Now I love living over here. I'm not itching to go back necessarily.

Janis: Tell us what you do in your trade.

Ginger: I work at Apple in design artwork production workflows. I used to be a graphic designer, but now I really focus on defining the way that our designers work and helping to add structure to their workflows and processes. I feel like I have two sides to my brain. I do like to be creative, but then I also am very, very organized and like things well-structured. It's nice to bring both of those things together and still be able to work with designers.

Janis: How did Sachi come to your life?

Ginger: I thought, "Oh, I kind of want a cat." I mentioned this to my mom, and she told her friend who was super involved in the cat world. She had a bunch of cats, maybe six to seven cats. I remember going to her house and she had a whole room for the cats to play in. She told my mom about this cat they called Fluffy. She loved Fluffy so much, but they had recently gotten a dog, and Fluffy (who we now call Sachi) didn’t get along with the dog. She didn’t want Fluffy to go to any random family and she really wanted her to go to a family where she would be the only pet in the house. I picked Mason up from the airport and told him we were going to meet Sachi. We ended up taking her home that night.

Janis: Did you grow up with pets?

Ginger: We had dogs when I was growing up. My brother had a cat at one point. I had a rat as a pet at one point, too.

Janis: Oh my god. I love rats.

Ginger: Do you really?

Janis: They're just the sweetest. Something about their tails is really funny to me. They're adorable even if they're a little bit freaky. That's fun that you actually had one.

Ginger: She was a white rat and I called her Daisy.

Janis: One of our co-workers adopted two cats from a friend who moved out of the country. But they were far along in their lives, similar to Sachi—six, seven, eight years old. She renamed both of them and there was some discourse over whether you should rename the pets that you adopt. She was like, absolutely yes, these are my pets now, it's their new identity.

Ginger: I thought about that, too, at first, but then I realized I really didn't want to call her Fluffy. It's just not her. She's more sophisticated than that.

Janis: Why the name Sachi?

Ginger: We wanted to keep how her name ending sounded, so she would come when called. So it had to end in an “ee” sound. We had recently gone to Japan and we’re obsessed with all things Japanese, so we were looking up Japanese names and Mason came across Sachi and it meant…oh I should look this up.

Janis: I think bliss.

Ginger: Child of joy or something like that. We thought she brings us so much joy and happiness, so let's name her Sachi.

Janis: How has Sachi changed you or your life?

Ginger: I didn't realize what we were missing until we had her. Mason travels so much, so it's nice to come home to something so sweet and cuddly. She is the most friendly, loving cat. She keeps me company and loves giving me biscuits every day. She'll try her hardest to wrap her arms around my neck, even if I'm holding her. Throughout the day, she'll claw on my leg and meow at me to pick her up. She just brings so much more life into our house that we didn't know we were missing.

Janis: It's clear that you both honor design and it's a part of your lives. It’s notoriously hard to find nice looking home decor for pets, especially cats. Has Sachi changed what you bring into or avoid bringing into your home?

Ginger: In other places we've lived, I've been so excited to move into a new place that I just try and fill it up really fast. When we moved into this house, Mason and I both wanted to be really intentional about buying furniture and pieces to furnish the house. We only recently felt like we were settled, and we’ve been here for a couple of years. Sachi is an extra layer of decision when I buy furniture. Is she going to scratch this up and ruin it? I accidentally bought a rug for our living room that was the perfect scratcher. She destroyed it.

Janis: Was it wool?

Ginger: Yeah, kind of knotted or woven. She got her claws right in there.

Janis: They love it.

Ginger: As we were redesigning the living room, I realized after some research that cats don't really like to scratch velvet. So we got our couch and two swivel chairs in velvet. She doesn't scratch them at all. The rug is a kind where her claws don't get stuck in the fabric, so she doesn't claw that either. I finally figured out what I could and couldn't buy.

Janis: That's so real. I feel like she's a stakeholder in the decor.

Janis: Is there a cat product in your home that you wish just looked better?

Ginger: Last year, during our honeymoon, Sachi got really, really mad. It must have been because we were gone for two or three weeks. When we came home, she was peeing and pooping on our couch. I tried a couple of different pet blankets to cover the couch. But the ones that looked best weren't actually waterproof, and of course the ugliest ones were the best and waterproof. Even now, I'm terrified of her randomly peeing or pooping on the couch, so I usually have waterproof pet blankets on the couch just in case, but they're so ugly.

Janis: That happened to me, too. We were preparing for a big trip to Copenhagen last year and had our luggage by our front door, and our cat peed on the couch three times within the span of two days. And we realized it was because he was so pissed that we were leaving.

Ginger: He saw the suitcase.

Janis: I was shocked.

Ginger: They're so smart. Now what I do (and Mason thought I was crazy when I first did this), is that I don’t let her see us packing. She cannot see the luggage come in or out of the house. We have to keep the door closed when we're packing.

Janis: Is there anything about your Smallserve that’s beneficial to your cat parent experience?

Ginger: I love that it's really versatile. I'm always changing where I have flowers around the house or little knickknacks, so I really like being able to make it taller or change the way it looks. I also love the color. I love colorful, vibrant things. It even matches our oven and cabinet colors. It's just nice to look at. I don’t like bringing stuff into the house that feels out of place. It felt right at home in our kitchen.

Janis: I'm glad. I really appreciate your time and letting us into your home. Thank you so much.