The Saint and one of his many devotees / Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris

I miss my man. He’s in San Diego, California. I’m in Kefalonia, Greece. Between us lie 8,000 miles and far too many months, while I’ve been essentially marooned on this little island doing animal rescue and other work.

Just typing this, I can barely see. The eyes flood with tears. Gotta reach for the tissues.

OK, eyes wiped, nose blown. Now I can say that if there is a man more supportive, more understanding, and more kind-hearted toward people and animals alike—not to mention toward his eccentric wife—such a man would have to be a saint.

My own personal saint, this spouse of mine, has not been officially canonized by any organized religion, but if there were a religion that recognized fellows like him—The Church of Animal Saviors, perhaps—my guy would be one of the first to qualify on their holiest lineup.

There will be more about him later, I’m afraid; you won’t escape further gushing. For now, before I go even more soggy on you and use up the whole tissue box, I’ll just provide a peek at the dedication of my upcoming Spicy Story “Unchain My Heart.” (It’s about a woman who, after spending a decade emotionally chained to a domineering man, discovers a dog who has spent his whole life on a chain. She searches for a way to free them both…)

DEDICATION FOR UPCOMING SPICY STORY ‘UNCHAIN MY HEART’:

To the man who unchained my heart—the one who not only funded but also hands-on assisted in dozens of animal rescues and fosters, and who sobbed every time they went to their new homes, the one who opened his heart and his wallet to rescuing two elderly, abandoned humans, and provided care for them until their dignified passings six expensive years later, the one whose kind and playful nature shines so brightly that all my rescues forget completely about me and fall head over paws the moment they spot him, the one who, to the point of saintliness, puts up with a scatterbrained, emotional, eccentric, and too-often absent wife—you are the hero, both on the page and off, of all my stories.

Katerina Lorenzatos Makris is a career journalist, author, and editor. Her fiction includes 17 novels for Simon and Schuster, E.P. Dutton, Avon, and other major publishers (under the name Kathryn Makris), as well as a teleplay for CBS-TV, and a short story for The Bark magazine. She has written hundreds of articles for regional wire services and for outlets such as National Geographic Traveler, The San Francisco Chronicle, Travelers’ Tales, NBC’s Petside.com, Animal Issues Reporter.org, and Examiner.com (Animal Policy Examiner).