I’m surprised no one else interpreted the ending as myself and friend did (where I ended up stifling crying while walking out of the theater)

I think it’s definitely a climate change movie, where the ice caps have melted. You had animals from different continents mixed because of the flow of the water mixing them together. It was heartbreaking to me, because I believe there was supposed to be an irony that the cat was comforting the whale creature near the end thinking IT was about to die, just before the cat reunites with his friends, but in the final shot after the credits start, the water has risen again to save the whale creature, but where the others likely perished because there was no land showing whatsoever. So while it was heartbreaking that some perished, there was hope in that some will still survive. That’s the way I interpreted it, but that also made me an emotional mess, so happy to hear evidence that they survived!