Rambo is not a dog. He is a 56-kilogram alligator who lives as if he were one.
Mary Thorn, of Lakeland, Florida, rescued him more than seven years ago when he was barely one foot long. Today he is over 6 feet long, sleeps in her bed, eats beside her at the table and even rides motorcycles and sits on ATVs as if he were her favorite copilot. He wears clothes not on a whim, but because his skin became sensitive to sunlight after spending his first months confined in a dark tank.
The problem arose when new wildlife rules required 2.5 acres of land to keep an alligator that size at home — something Thorn does not have, and which would not work anyway because Rambo cannot live outdoors. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission opened an investigation while she insisted on taking him to schools and charity events, swearing that she had trained him not to bite anyone. Months later, the ‘gator mom’ achieved what seemed impossible: she got to keep her motorcycle-riding alligator.