Well the Prima Guide can only go by what Maxis tells them as they don't actually play the game before they write up the book. 

The Prima Guide says that only the last 3 items they buy are in their inventory.  I haven't tested this out in theory though.

I personally think that so far ALL the eps have been lame, though I'm glad at least Uni and OFB were original ideas as opposed to NL which was Hot Date 2.  By "star" eps, I guess I mean, an ep that is guaranteed to be a safe bet in its mass appeal.  Uni and OfB stood to isolate many simmers but NL was a no brainer.  Pets will be one too.

I doubt they're running out of gas either.  I think putting out pets this soon is just an answer to the OVERWHELMING demand for them.  It's getting belligerent.  Maxis probably just wants to shut these people up and for good reason.  Also, they're always going to put out their "star" EP during the fall quarter so people buy it during Christmas time so if they didn't put it out this year, they'd probably have to wait until '07 and by then some crazy BBS-er would probably storm Maxis headquarters and hold the staff hostage until they put pets in the game.  It's better they do it now.  At least the Suggest an Idea board will be cleared up.

If pets is just going to be a feature of the ep, though, I wonder what the ep theme will be.

No way!  Stupid people need to breed.  Who else will run the DMV and other civil customer service agencies?

I didn't so much find the whole llama thing funny, more just corny-cute.  The posts where people actually took it seriously (and angrily) were hilarious though!

Lol, shouldn't this thread be in the Myths and Urban Legends section? 

It's weird how rumors get started, I just read something similar on the BBS.  To clear a few things up, there's no contest to figure out what spawns the flying pig.  MaxoidHunter just stated in the chat that he was waiting for us to figure it out.

I don't ever recall Maxis ever saying "when pigs fly" to someone bitching about when we were going to get pets.  It's pretty moot as they've stated time and time again that we will get pets in an ep, it's just a matter of when and not if.  Yet the "hey, i've got a great idea!  how about pets?" threads on the Suggest an Idea board keep piling up.

My guess is the pig balloon is either a Pink Floyd reference or just a "when pigs fly" reference and has nothing to do with any future farm-themed expansion pack.  I could be wrong but mostly I think people are reading waaay too much into this whole flying pig thing.  Pigs are the new Bella, I guess.