Truth is Lil’Bit could have stayed in bed.

After a gray Thursday that featured a little snow, some ice and a lot of rain, who could imagine that Lil’Bit, that pot-bellied pig who’s been standing in for a groundhog on Groundhog Day in Lexington for several years now, did her job.

She and her owners, Bob and Nancy Lent of Salisbury, got up early Friday morning and headed for Lexington, and she did her thing while everybody talked about how impossible it would be to see a shadow in the glowering weather.

And she didn’t.

Bob and Nancy took her to Lexington for the big moment since that was where she lived when she was first put into service as a — well, some call her a groundpig stand-in on Groundhog Day — and she did it in style.

First, she waited in the Avon store on the Square in Lexington, and when the proper moment came, whatever time that was, she came out of the store and into the Square, and didn’t see her shadow, and everybody cheered because that promises an early spring.

What could have been nicer on a wet and cloudy morning?

“She originally did it at Barbecue Alley,” says Nancy, because she’s a pig and pork is barbecue and — oh, well, it worked.

“But we changed it to the Square this year,” Nancy says, “because we felt it would be easier for the public to get to. It’s more open. It wasn’t so shady.

“And there were a lot of kids there, what with the school delay again,” Nancy says, so parents brought them, and they pushed the numbers to 50, 60 people there. That’s about average, and it was warmer this year than last year.

“And she did not see her shadow, so that means spring’s around the corner.”

What’s more, everybody — well, some of them — enjoyed another Lil’Bit prediction.

FM radio station 98.7 Simon got her to predict the winner of the Super Bowl after she promised spring, and she probably liked that duty more.

The Chicago Bears will face the Indianapolis Colts, and Lil’Bit picked the Bears.

How?

Easy. She was offered a bowl of Oreos, representing the Bears, and a bowl of Cheetos, representing the Colts, and Lil’Bit went for the Bears as quickly as she predicted an early spring.

So there it is: An early spring is on its way and the Bears will win the Super Bowl, and Bob and Nancy Lent’s sons — Tommy, 9, and Ryan, 16 — and their niece, Shai — didn’t even miss much, if any, school to support Lil’Bit, the pot-bellied pig-stand-in for a groundhog in her claim to fame, thanks to another late school start because of the weather.

It was a Groundhog Day to be remembered.

Contact Rose Post at rpost@salisburypost.com or 704-797-4251.