This story is easily my favorite Escape Pod of the year, and quite possibly, after a few listens, may be one of my favorites ever. Space marines with good action plus KITTIES! I was completely locked in and had a wash of anxiety when Max took a bullet when the cover fire slacked off for a moment. I was super excited by the appearance of Commodore McFlufferton, and really appreciated the fine craftsmanship that allowed cat people to project cat onto the critter and dog people to project dog onto the critter.
This gives me the same warm fuzzies of the good run of Captain Marvel, including Chewie.
The human female hurt herself? Patch her up and she'll be as good as new! The human female is lonely? Give her some weird animal and she'll be happy again! Nobody understands why human females like these hideous creatures, but if it keeps her happy we can put up with it, and maybe she'll turn out to be a good team member after all. No real attempt to sympathise or empathise with the human female, just to find out whatever weird things are needed to keep her happy.
The way I heard it, is Max was presented as a human. Not a human female. I don't think gender was even a consideration for Krem. Doing a word search in the story, the word "female" never shows up. "Woman" only appears twice in this context: "With more care than finesse, Krem snatched up the woman sitting on a table in front of Sovad with two claws and deposited Max in her place with the other two. The woman gave Krem an indignant expression that didn’t make him feel bad for interrupting."
I think it might be worth considering what you're projecting into the story, and what is on the page. The appearance of the pet is crafted with the same care, as I pointed out above. I am totally a cat person, so Commodore McFlufferton was a kitty for me. I am willing to place a wager that dog people will defend it being a dog. [Insert meme: RAOKS ARE DOGS -- CHANGE MY MIND]
Readers are always well served to consider what they are bringing to their reading experience.