Not to be a downer (quite the contrary really), but I have to point out that all fathers are not created equal. My dad was a major fuck-up of a parent. He allowed himself (and us kids) to be dominated by an unstable, short-fused, irrational, and violence-prone mother. So weak a man and so afraid of her was he that he would help her in her abuse of us rather than stand up and put a stop to it. Even though I eventually forgave my father for the terrible childhood he allowed his children to endure I'll never be able to forget it. It makes respecting him extremely hard, but I try.
I say this not for pity, but to illustrate the point even further that if you have a good dad, please PLEASE appreciate him. If you lost him, be thankful that the memories you have of him are good ones. Those memories are something some of us will never have.
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
- Mahatma Gandhi