This is the story of an extraordinary friendship between a man and his hippo. An animal that would normally be considered more dangerous than a lion wanders around the house, drinks coffee on the veranda, eats sweet potatoes, plays with puppies and gets massage treatments.

Just after birth, during the 2000 Mozambique floods, a 12-kilogram (26-pound) baby hippo was washed up on a private lawn bordering the Blyde River in South Africa's Limpopo province. Tonie, a retired game warden, found her and named her "Jessica."

Tonie has raised many animals in his lifetime, but Jessica was his first hippopotamus, and she was soon to become a much bigger challenge. Bottle-feeding her, he managed to nurture her into what she is today: a nearly 1-ton, 7-year-old hippo.

Right from the beginning, this unique relationship has stirred the public imagination. Visitors come to Tonie's house to play and swim with Jessica, local news crews arrive to chart her progress. And in South Korea and Japan, Jessica is a national hero!

Jessica the Hippo is narrated by cult filmmaker John Waters.