SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Twiggy, the world-famous waterskiing squirrel, is set to perform at Ingram Park Mall from Thursday, July 30, through Saturday, Aug. 1. She has shows at noon, 3pm and 6pm.<\/p>\n
Twiggy\u2019s story dates back to 1978, when Chuck and Lou Ann Best rescued a baby squirrel blown from her nest during a hurricane in Sanford, Florida. The family adopted the squirrel, who soon accompanied them on camping and water-skiing trips.<\/p>\n
After Chuck Best purchased a remote-controlled boat for his daughter\u2019s birthday, friends teased that he had bought it for himself. Best jokingly replied that he needed to learn to drive the boat to teach his squirrel how to water-ski. The couple soon turned the joke into reality.<\/p>\n
The pet earned her stage name, Twiggy, after chewing the leaves off Lou Ann Best\u2019s houseplants until only twigs remained.<\/p>\n
The performative rodent gained media attention in May 1979 when The Sanford Herald published the first article on her. Coverage expanded to The Orlando Sentinel, an Emmy-winning segment on Good Morning America by Orlando\u2019s local ABC News affiliate, and an appearance on the national television show “Real People.”<\/p>\n
Twiggy began touring professionally in September 1979. Over the years, the act traveled across the U.S., Canada, Bermuda, Europe and Germany, appearing in various books, magazines and television broadcasts.<\/p>\n
Beyond Twiggy, the Bests trained several other animals to water-ski, including two miniature horses, two French poodles, a black cat, an armadillo and a toad. They also taught a squirrel named Ollie to jet-ski, trained three squirrels to ski in a pyramid formation for an act titled “Lights, Camera, Action,” and taught Twiggy to hang-glide and ride in a helicopter.<\/p>\n
Tragedy struck in November 1997 when Chuck Best suffered a heart attack and drowned while saving his stepfather’s life. Lou Ann Best initially canceled scheduled winter shows, but she resumed training after a squirrel appeared at her glass door shortly after the incident.<\/p>\n
Throughout her career, Lou Ann Best trained eight water-skiing squirrels and used the platform to promote water safety to millions of viewers. After 39 years, she retired the tour to Osteen, Florida, alongside Twiggy VIII, with plans to author a memoir and develop a feature film.<\/p>\n
The family tradition continues under Chuck Best Jr., Lou Ann’s son, who has taken over the business to guide the next chapter of Twiggy’s legacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Twiggy, the world-famous waterskiing squirrel, is set to perform at Ingram Park Mall from Thursday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-392063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}