Father&8217;s Day is a special day for a variety of reasons.

Your dad could be a professional golfer or a movie star, maybe just an average guy, or a fallen veteran of a foreign war.

Regardless, he is your dad.

You may see him everyday, once a month or never again.

Again there is one constant to the message, he is your dad.

This day, to me, is now more special than most all of the holidays.

I have a father whom I adored for many years of my youth until I reached that high school age.

Like many sons, I rebelled against him and others.

I did not want to do the same things anymore with him.

Oh, he still cared even though I would disappoint him from time to time.

Even through college, this trend continued and my father was left out.

After graduation from college and getting my first job there was still tension.

I always respected my father.

He was one of the more noted biologists in the southeast, a former athlete, and highly intelligent.

It seemed like he knew everything about hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, plants and animals.

He was one of the hardest working men I ever knew yet, he always made time to take our family on tours of the national parks, hunting, fishing, and sight-seeing.

From fishing trips as far away as Ontario, Canada, and as close as Lay Lake, he made the time for us.

It seemed I got dragged all over the United States on these trips that I thought were &8220;pretty cool&8221; at the time.

Looking back now, those &8220;pretty cool&8221; trips to nearly 40 states were absolutely incredible.

I would give you my house to go on them now.

However, I was a teenager and my father and I did not see eye to eye on anything.

My definition of a father is the man that was just there from your birth.

A dad was the man that was the stereotypical TV &8220;dad&8221; like Andy Griffith.

The first part of my life, I had a &8220;dad&8221; then it changed to a &8220;father&8221; in my teenage years and beyond.

Married now and with a little girl, my father has changed.

He and I are both getting older.

Our athletic builds and hair are fading as time progresses.

What changed him?

He asked me to go with him on a hunting trip out west to Nebraska a few years back.

I agreed to go along in the hopes of taking a trophy mule deer and a whitetail deer.

We had been out in this area before and I had taken two nice animals.

On this trip, however, I did not harvest a deer.

I was not mad or even disappointed that I had not taken a deer.

The last day of that hunt, I hunted with my father on the snow-covered hills and buttes.

The full moon that hung in the sky like a distant light gave the landscape a surreal appearance at 4:00pm.

As my father and I waded through the calf deep snow, we spotted some mule deer feeding down the side of a large butte.

We got behind some of the dense pines and waited.

They walked within 100 yards of our position when I heard my father ask if I could get one of them.

I said that I could and positioned the rifle for a shot.

The shot was there but I did not take it.

I realized at that moment that my father wanted me to have that chance, just like he had done for well over 30 years.

My eyes watered from emotion as we watched the deer pass.

I tried my best to cover my emotions and the subzero wind chill was not helping matters.

As we were packing up to come back to Alabama, I thanked my father for a great trip.

I was flying out that evening and he and some others were driving back.

&8220;I love you&8221;, he said in a firm but soft voice.

I repeated his comment and got in the vehicle to go to the airport.

During the drive it hit me that I have had a &8220;dad&8221; all along.

It was me that chose to have a &8220;father&8221;.

I am so very grateful to have a dad like him and I can only hope that I am half the dad he was and still is.

Happy Father&8217;s Day, dad.