A "pet" peeve

Right away I have to say: I don't like the phrase "pet peeve", or, more specifically, I don't like the word "peeve". But anyway...

For whatever reason, I've always tended to think of cats as female and dogs as males. Why are some people so quick to correct me or get mad when I refer to a pet using the wrong gender?

My roomates have two dogs- a dark female German Shepherd named Tasha and a snow-white fluffy male Huskie named Porter. The female, Tasha, is very loud and aggressive and barks all the time and annoys the shit out of me. The male, Porter, is quiet and friendly, always wagging his tail. He gets so excited his whole rear end wags from side to side.

If I say about Porter, "Wow, she looks so happy", my roommate is quick to correct me, "Porter's a 'he'".

We have three cats too, and the male, Tigre (aka "Fatty" and "Fatty-Boom-Batty"), is the most outgoing; he'll scratch on my bedroom door to be let in whenever I have company. My friend Amy actually gets annoyed at me when I refer to Tigre using 'she'.

Who cares? What difference does it make what gender a pet is? If you're visiting a friend do you treat their male cat differently than their female cat? I don't. So what's the big fucking deal?

I have another complaint. Have you noticed that in movies where the main characters are madly in love with each other the two of them are always boring, uninteresting people. Take Twilight: New Moon, which I happen to be watching right now- Bella is moody and crabby. She's no fun and neither is Edward. You wouldn't want to spend five minutes with either of them, so really, who could love them?