ESPN anchor explains a dog's love in tribute to his good boy Otis and it'll make you cry

Editor's note: This article was originally published on May 6, 2022. It has since been updated.

Losing a pet is one of the most painful experiences, equal to losing a family member for some people. ESPN's Scott Van Pelt had to, live through it and was left devastated after losing his beloved dog, Otis. People who don't have pets sometimes deride others' deep love for their pets. When someone's dog has passed away, there's always someone who'll say "but, it's just a dog." It's hard to describe the pain of losing a pet, but ESPN's Scott Van Pelt did his best and it has us all choked up. "Nothing has loved me as Otis did," said Van Pelt in his tribute to his dog Otis on "Sports Center.” Van Pelt started off by admitting that he didn’t understand the pain that others went through after they lost a dog until he got Otis. “I’ve read countless moving tributes through the years about what your bonds meant and what made your dogs unique,” he said. ”I always felt bad for you, but I had no idea honestly and I wish I didn’t know now."

Van Pelt announced Otis' passing on Twitter, "Crushed to share that we had to say goodbye to Otis The Dog. Truly the most special friendship and bond of my entire lifetime. He was an absolute King. Love on your good boys and good girls with all your might — every day that you can. There aren’t ever enough of them." He explained the joy that Otis brought him by simply existing. "I don't know what in my life has made me cry like this. Such profound sadness over a love that was so damn pure now it bothers my mom when I say, 'Nothing has ever loved me the way Otis did. Nothing we do could earn what our dogs give away to us for free,'" he said. "That level of love and loyalty and so many of you know what I am talking about. The truth of the matter is, that the only thing our dogs have to do to take up this much room in our hearts and in our souls, is ours."

"Simply by his presence, he has been a joyous and loving constant every single day of each of their lives. Trying to explain his absence to my children was one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever had to do. How do you make it make sense to them. Hell, how do I make it make sense to me. The simplest explanation I suppose for any of this is the truest. That the best part of this life is loving anything and you do it, even knowing the hardest part, which is that somewhere in the equation inevitably there will be loss and the weight of this one is immense because he was the corner puzzle piece. So much of what mattered to our family. The big things and the little ones connected to him," he said.

"After the show tonight, I'd rather drive all the way from D.C. to the pacific ocean instead of taking a short ride home, where I'm going to sit in the dark waiting for my Otti boy but if this hurt is the cost of the transaction for being on the receiving end of a mighty love that I got to know Otis the dog, then I pay it with enormous gratitude because even though I'm crying I was just so happy he was ours and I'm so happy that we were his. My friend spencer hall said simply, 'dogs are grace' and Chris Stapleton sings about a revelation that 'A dog has a soul' and they're both right. I stared into the eyes of Otis the dog and into his soul and I promised him again and again. Yours is forever going to live, in mine."

You can watch the video here:

As one viewer commented, “Everyone thinks they have the best dog. And none of them are wrong.”