Makena was walking along the beach when something half-buried in the sand caught her attention.
It was one of those discs used to play with dogs. She turned it over and found a message handwritten in black marker: someone asked that, if this toy was found, it be returned to the sea. It was in memory of Koda, his dog, who was no longer around.
Makena said she stayed there, standing and crying, because the message was sweet and sad at the same time. She didn’t keep the disc or throw it in the trash: she walked to the shore and tossed it back into the water, fulfilling the final request of a stranger.
She recorded the moment and uploaded it to TikTok without imagining what would come next. The video surpassed 1.8 million views and filled with comments from people who had also lost a dog named Koda, as if the sea had found a way to unite the same pain on different shores.