Karma and the dog

On Wednesday before the Easter weekend, I was on my way home from work at around 8 p.m. and I saw this poor looking dog lying by the side of the road. I felt really sorry for her (It was female) but I didn’t had any thing to feed her. So I went home and continued with the rest of the day although I kept remembering of the dog.
The following morning when we (me and sis) got in to the car (pretty late for work as usual) and when we pulled out the car we saw that dog lying below our staircase! I felt really bad so I pulled the car back in and found some biscuits and milk for the poor thing. It was quite friendly and was wagging her tail while eating the biscuits. We drove off expecting it to be there when we return.
But unfortunately (for the dog) our plans changed during the evening and we went to Kandy (Our home town where our parents live, which is some 120 KM away from the capital we work). We came back on Saturday morning and as we expected the dog wasn’t there. We talked about it in the morning but during the day we some what forgot about it.
Today, Sunday, I left home around 10.30 and walked towards the bus stand on my way I saw that dog wandering around people with an innocent and helpless look on her face. My heart felt really heavy for her. But there wasn’t any thing I could do – reasonable. The place we stay here is not exactly a home – we don’t make it a home – so I can’t take her home as I would have when I was in Kandy, because we won’t be able to feed her regularly, and there no place where she can stay while we are away. While I was wondering what I can do, a bus came. So I got in to it but I couldn’t take my mind away from her.
I usually care more about animals than of humans in a way. Because I believe that animals are helpless than humans; and humans are responsible for most of the ill-fate of animals. I could make up my mind about the tsunami affected people thinking that it was their karma that brought them to that fate. But when it comes to dogs (According to Buddhism, birth is a consequence of karma, so you are born human because you had good karma, and a lion is born to kill other animals for food, which is an act that result in bad karma, because it had bad karma in a previous Bhawa – yes it’s pretty hard for lions to get out from it even though how cute they are) sympathy rises above the theories of karma in my mind :D.
Have I ever called myself a Buddhist? Well I may have, when I had a lesser understanding of the subject. Now I’d rather say I’m trying to be one. It’s said that when some one seeks refugee only within Buddha, Dharma, and Sanga that person is a Buddhist. But it’s also said that it’s not by birth or any other that makes a Brahma but the act. So I’ll wait till I can gather my act before I call myself a true Buddhist :D