Summer mornings on the trail
Co-pilot, book mascot, best friend
A story of trail, trust & devotion
Eight years. Every path. Together.
For author Randy Bucek, that companion was a golden-red Labrador named Cinnamon — warm in color, warmer in spirit, and built for exactly the kind of life Randy lived: unhurried mornings, forest trails, and the quiet company of someone who never needed to say a word.
From the moment Cinnamon came into his world, the two were inseparable. Eight years of shared mornings. Eight years of road trips and river walks. Eight years of a bond that only deepened with every season.
Randy has always been drawn to rivers, to woods, to the places where the noise of the world goes quiet. Cinnamon understood that instinctively. She didn't need a leash on an open trail — she simply walked beside him, nose down and tail easy, like she had always known the way.
She was there through the writing of Down by the Riverside, riding shotgun on every errand, every book run, every winding back road. The book's sticker lived on the truck door; Cinnamon's head lived in the window. Together, they were Randy's whole world on wheels.
People who met Cinnamon always said the same thing: she had the gentlest eyes they'd ever seen on a dog. Old soul energy. The kind of quiet you earn after years of being truly loved.
A faithful companion. A gentle soul. Eight years of unconditional love, quiet loyalty, and the kind of presence that fills a room — and a heart — completely.
She leaves behind trails that will always carry her memory, a truck seat that still holds her warmth, and a writer whose best work was always done with her nearby.
The trails don't end — they just look a little different now. But somewhere in the rustle of leaves and the sound of moving water, Cinnamon is still walking ahead, tail up, looking back to make sure Randy is right behind her.
You left paw prints on our lives. ♥