Where is the love?

I just came home from my daily round of feeding the kittens and their mother at the garden of my apartment. Depending on what we have at disposal, Mom would sometimes pack some cat food, sometimes just plain rice with steamed fish to be fed to the furry felines. After discreetly placing the fishy mush-filled plastic bag in a shadowy corner of the apartment block, I made my way for the shopping complex next door to get something to drink.
There i was, my favourite pearl-milk tea in one happily sipping away. I slowed down when I saw a lady with greying hair fumbling in a huge bag near the kitties, fishing out a plastic bag. I looked at the kittens chomping down their dinner furiously and she told me in Hokkien what a pitiful sight it was. I agreed with her and she handed me the plastic bag and poured some Friskies into it. I asked her if she was staying at the apartment and on which floor and I was really surprised when she told me she was staying at Jelutong. To think she travelled all the way here just to feed some animals. She then told me some story about 'karma' (fate) andI listened intently, couldn't help but agreed with her about animals being helpless and somewhat invalid creatures and they couldn't possibly relate their hunger pangs to us nor had they any money to buy some unlike us.
I can't say I am a staunch or religious person because I really haven't found the calling to commit myself in a religious way. Don't know why but I guess it must be because of what's been happening or rather not happening around me that leaves me feeling this way. But here's what I think. What's the use of accumulating merits in a religion, praying one's heart out day in day out but when it comes to helping the poor, disabled and helpless creatures, one just can't be bothered? It is the deeds carried out with a sincere heart that makes this world a better place to live in.
My late grandma used to say: "When we help people in distress (human beings), i.e. by putting a plate of food on their table when they have none, they put us on a pedestal and their mouth only have words of praise for us but when the food is already in their throat and about to be swallowed, they forget our deeds and turn their backs to us and the words of praise turn into things ungrateful. If you feed an animal, it doesn't praise you nor does it say bad things about you because it can't. The only thing they can do is to remember who fed them."
How very true, *Mummy!

*Mummy was the affectionate term I used to address my late maternal grandma.