Thai was 16 years old and had spent half his life waiting on the shore.
He was the surfing dog of Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. While Diego Jiménez taught his students to swim among the waves, Thai stayed on the beach, attentive, as if he knew exactly who needed company. When cancer overcame him, Diego did not want to say goodbye just anywhere. He decided to take him one last time to the sea that had watched them grow up together: he placed his body on the surfboard, surrounded him with petals and flowers, and paddled out to sea.
“I love you, big head, I’m going to miss you”, he later wrote on social media. Days later, he remembered him again as the companion who always knew how to read people’s hearts. The video of that farewell moved millions of people around the world, perhaps because everyone who has ever loved an animal like a child understands exactly what that final embrace among the waves means.
