An Australian woman says she divorced her husband after he asked her to choose between him and her pet crocodile.

Vicki Lowing said there was no way she could give up 5ft long Johnie which she says is "like a child" to her. Mrs Lowing, 52, who has hand-raised the croc 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, adopted the crocodile after it was left on her doorstep in 1996, reports the Daily Telegraph. 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." 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". It was only after the crocodile stopped growing that Mrs Lowing realised it was female, because the reptiles have 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."

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Reference: ananova.com

Dated 2009-10-16