Editor’s note: Last week wowOwow.com caught up with Cybill Shepherd, who was promoting the upcoming collector’s edition DVD release of her Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning mid-’90s sitcom "Cybill." The former "Moonlighting" star talked about cougaring (as in the verb tense), and also the rough road she took to get back into the game.

"Cougaring" and being a "cougar" are things to be proud of, according to Cybill Shepherd, who just recently found out the term’s alternate meaning. 

"Oh, cougaring! I didn’t know what it meant! Am I out of it or what?" the Hollywood veteran told wowOwow.com. "Somebody had to explain it to me.

Click here to see photographs of the fabulous Cybill Shepherd.

"But I love the idea of being a cougar — I mean not the animal —I mean I dig the animal; I mean who cares?  I take it as a compliment!"

Since establishing her first beachhead of international celebrity in the ’60s as a beauty queen and fashion model, it’s hard to say exactly how many career comebacks the 58-year-old star has had, but this most recent one — the release of the "Cybill" DVD series — is perhaps her most triumphant.

"It’s very moving to me that this [DVD] came out. I thought it would never come out. I was sure that ‘Cybil’ had disappeared. It wasn’t good for my career, what happened, but I kept on fighting back. The ‘Cybill’ show disappeared – it was never syndicated. It was never given a good-bye. It was never given anything.

"One of the things they did is they cut out my last singing number (in the last episode). Years later I called the studio, and said I really would like to have the footage of that singing number for my archives. They said: ‘It’s buried in the salt mines of Utah.’ That’s literally what they said. I went through a very, very, very difficult time and [felt] my career had been buried and the show unappreciated. People come up to me now and they say, ‘Where did it go? What happened?’

"All these other shows that have a last episode, everybody’s celebrating. But it was a huge thing to come back from and I didn’t think I’d ever come back. I really thought my career was over. And it was ‘The L Word’ that really instigated another comeback for me. I’m suddenly working, but I feel as if to get this time, coming back was like going up the rough side of the mountain.

"There’s a great gospel song, ‘Going Up the Rough Side of the Mountain.’ The main thing is you get up there again."