GEORGE: SPRING MAY NOT BE NEAR

Hold on to your earmuffs, spring isn't just around the corner.

Cape Girardeau George slept late Thursday and when the hairy little rodent rolled out of the sack about 10 a.m., he spied his shadow and morosely predicted six more weeks of winter.

This is a contradiction of George's more renown relative, Punxsatawney Phil, who made his Groundhog Day debut under an overcast, chilly sky and boldly predicted "spring is almost here."

George's debut wasn't as heralded as that of Phil, possibly the world's most famous weather forecaster.

A crowd of about 7,000 people cheered loudly as chubby Phil was hauled from his man-made burrow.

It was the first time in 11 years Phil failed to see his shadow.

"What does he know," grumbled Girardeau George. "I mean, he has a man-made burrow, and he could wait until he was sure that the clouds were covering the sun. That's not exactly fair. I'll bet he's even got cable."

Phil ordinarily lives in a heated, glassed-in hutch near the town's library with two other groundhogs, Philomena and Barney.

George, had he crawled out of his Missouri burrow before 8 a.m., may not have seen his shadow. There were a few clouds around then.

"And, where are the people here," grumbled George in his Marmota Monax gibberish, from his abode along Route W between Kingshighway and the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri. "You're the only one I see here, not a cast of cheering thousands."

But, George is standing fast on his prediction.

"You watch, you just watch," he said in the exclusive interview. "You'll dread the snow till the first of May."

"Who thought up all this Groundhog business anyhow," he continued. "Don't you people have anything better to do than go around pestering furry little forest creatures."

"The Chinese have the Year of the Horse, Year of the Boar and Year of the Dragon," George snapped. "I'm cuter than a horse or dragon. Maybe next year you should find a flame-throwing dragon and asked if he sees his shadow. Bring along a steak or two and have a cheap cookout at the same time."

I had to explain to George that it had taken me 10 years to figure out his language and I'm not about to study dragon-talk at this stage of my life."

It's only fair to point out that George and Phil were not the only groundhog predictors Thursday.

"You mean there are others out there who take this punishment?" George asked.

Right, George. In New York City, the Staten Island Zoo's furry prognosticator Charles G. Hog had the same finding as Phil: no shadow, no long winter. A groundhog named Gen. Beauregard Lee at the Yellow River Game Ranch in Lilburn, Ga., also concurred.