Mother chooses pet crocodile over husband

An Australian woman, Vicki Lowing, says she divorced her husband after he asked her to give up her pet crocodile, Johnie, which she says is "like a child" to her.

11:14AM BST 14 Oct 2009

Vicki Lowing watching a film with Johnie, her pet freshwater crocodile at her home near Melbourne Photo: REXFEATURES

Mrs Lowing, 52, who has hand-raised the one-and-a-half metre reptile for 13 years, gives it the run of the house and even lets it sleep with her son Andrew in his bed.

The trained nurse from Melbourne, Victoria, who had looked after ill and abandoned animals for decades, adopted the crocodile after it was left on her doorstep in 1996 by an anonymous person.

Her husband Greg said she spent too much time with the pet and asked her to give it up in a bid to save their marriage, but she refused and the couple divorced in 2005.

Mrs Lowing, a trained nurse, said: "Husbands can look after themselves but my crocodile can't make his meals.

"As soon as I started looking after Johnie, Greg and I started having problems. We did nothing but fight. There was a lot of tension in the house.

"He said I devoted all my time on the crocodile instead of him. I felt like Greg was asking me to put him ahead of one of my children.

Mrs Lowing raised Johnie in her home with Andrew, who is only 18 months older than the crocodile, and said the experience was "like having two children to look after."

She said: "They were like brothers, following each other around. And as Andrew learnt and grew his curious side, so did Johnie. I would find Johnie emptying the cupboards, just as Andrew had done a few weeks earlier.

"They also had their sibling rivalry. I once heard Andrew screaming 'mummy, mummy.' I ran in to discover Andrew crying, saying Johnie had taken his toy. Sure enough, there was Johnie in his water tank, with the toy in his mouth.

Johnie now sits on Mrs Lowing's lap while she watches television and behaves "just like any cat or dog".

It was only after the crocodile stopped growing at one-and-a-half metres that Mrs Lowing realised it was female, because the species has no external sex organs.

She said: "I had to tell Andrew his brother was actually his sister. We've stuck with the name Johnie though, because its what we, and she, is used to. And I was secretly thrilled - I've always wanted a daughter."

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/woman-keeps-pet-crocodile-inside-home-walks-it/3647844805/?icid=VIDLRVNWS02