After Chuck Sr. purchased a remote-controlled boat for his daughter, he jokingly taught Twiggy to water-ski, initially training her in the bathtub.
[3][1] The Best family brought Twiggy to Lake Monroe and trained her to stand on small skis that Chuck Sr. had made from plastic foam and packing crates.
[2] In August 1979, the Orlando Sentinel wrote an article about Twiggy which the United Press International published worldwide.
[2] In the article, Chuck Best said that Twiggy had not earned any money, but that he was open to sponsorships from companies that sold boats, water skis, and peanut butter.
[2] Later that year, after an organizer reached out to the Bests, Twiggy made her live performance debut at a boat show in Palm Beach.
He had previously planned to work at a stockbroker but decided to manage the water-skiing squirrel instead, which he said was "actually a lot more fun" than finance.
[5] In 2020, a Vancouver-area animal activist characterized the act as "grotesque" and raised concern for the squirrels' wellbeing, calling them "caged, food-deprived, and subjected to force training".
They claimed to have successfully taught water-skiing to "two miniature horses, two French poodles, a black cat, an armadillo and a toad."
[11] Twiggy has appeared in the films Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
Twiggy has also made appearances on screen in the 2001 film Down to Earth, Megamind, and the music video for Brad Paisley's 2014 single "River Bank".
[12] Twiggy has appeared in advertisements for Ford, GoPro, Ripley's Believe It or Not, California Walnuts, and Elite Endless Pool.