People often ask me what my online nickname means. To explain that, I have to tell you the story of the real Koshka.

In June of 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev visited San Francisco. I had been thinking of getting a cat to keep Pandora, my Queen cat, company. As I walked down Post Street, I passed the Gumps store where they were displaying animals up for adoption from the San Francisco S.P.C.A.

And there she was, six weeks old and already full of mischief! When I asked the attendant to play with her so I could see her interact with people, she was so anxious for attention that she tried to climb out of the entryway after the attendant. I knew she was the cat for me!!

Since I found her during Gorbachev's visit, it seemed appropriate to choose a Russian name for her. Galina, a recent Russian immigrant I worked with, told me that "kot" was Russian for male cat, and "koshka" was Russian for female (or little) cat. "Koshka" she became!

When I began going online in 1996, everyone seemed to have a cool nickname. Kosh is a very important character in Babylon 5, so I decided my cat wouldn't mind if I borrowed her name as my online identity.

Although Pandora has passed on, Koshka shares G'Quan (David) and me with our other cat, Je'Taime. Je'Taime first belonged to my cousin, Tracy; then she reigned over the household of my Aunt Dorothy. Before she died, Dorothy asked my mom to watch over her cat. Thus Je'Taime moved to San Francisco with my mother in 1993!

But Je'Taime seemed a very formal name for such a goofy cat, so we just call her "Package," or "Pack" for short. Again, I think you can see why: