Preston — About 16 years ago, former town animal control officers Alan and Caron Wunderlich launched TARA — Town Aid for Rescued Animals — a fund to help pay for vet bills of stray animals and to help financially strapped residents pay for vet care or food rather than give up their beloved animals.

They never guessed they would need to tap into the fund themselves.

The Wunderlichs and current Animal Control Officer Patti Daniels will be at the Preston transfer station from 8 a.m. to noon on Friday and Saturday mornings asking for donations to boost the TARA Fund to help pay for an estimated $3,000 in medical care for Remi, a 5-year-old English springer spaniel whose medical problem is as mysterious as the dog's unknown background.

They also set up a page on www.gofundme.com titled "Help us Help Remi".

Daniels found the spaniel wandering near Preston Trading Post in the frigid cold on Jan. 30. With a blizzard on its way, no other dogs at the town pound and a van without four-wheel drive, Daniels asked the Wunderlichs, who had recently lost their beloved Newfoundland-Lab mix dog, to foster the dog.

The Wunderlichs reluctantly agreed, telling Daniels they could not afford a new dog at the time. But the spaniel's loving nature intervened. They named him Remi, and he immediately made himself at home on their couch.

But problems arose quickly. Remi smelled bad, a consequence of being a stray, they figured, and they gave him a bath. But the stench remained. Caron Wunderlich flipped his long floppy ears and recoiled in alarm.

His right ear was filled with a thick black goo that smelled like a dead animal or feces. She cleaned it and cleaned it. She brought him to All Friends Animal Hospital in Norwich.

Dr. Kathleen Tangari cleaned and flushed his ears, gave him medicine and antibiotics and sent him home. As soon as he finished the antibiotics, the smell and goo would start to return.

In April, Tangari did a deep cleaning. With long, narrow tongs, she grasped what looked like a small foreign object. It turned out to be a 2-inch long slimy foxtail grass seed stalk.

This type of foxtail grass, or wild barley (Hordeum jubatum) is a western species and can cause major infections in dogs and other animals when dried, brittle barbed seeds, called awns, lodge in ears, noses, eyes and soft skin between toes.

Tangari said she has never seen so serious an infection of this type in her 20 years of practice as a veterinarian.

An article published in “The Whole Dog Journal” said foxtail grass has spread across the country, except Hawaii and several southern states. But according to the Home and Garden Education Center at the University of Connecticut, other species of foxtail — yellow foxtail and giant foxtail — are common in Connecticut, but not Hordeum jubatum.

So did Remi come from the West? Did he tangle with some unknown local patch?

“That's the thing that's remarkable,” Caron Wunderlich said. “Where is he from? What is his story?”

Since the stalks are dry and brittle and dangerous in summer, Tangari estimated he could have had that stalk in his ear for several months by the time he was found in January.

Animal Control Officer Daniels said his former owner might have realized the seriousness of his infection and dropped him off rather than face the expensive vet bills.

Remi otherwise was in good health and weight when he was found, she said.

Remi has been referred to Dr. Gary Block at Ocean State Veterinary Specialists in East Greenwich, R.I. Block will do the CT scan and a rhinoscopy — running a tiny probe run through Remi's ear, nose and throat to determine whether he needs additional surgery.

Block, who has offered the Wunderlichs a financial discount, said the term foxtail applies to several types of fringed seed stalks, and while California is “ground zero” for major foxtail infections in dogs, the other more common eastern species of seed barbs also can be snorted, swallowed and coughed up into nasal passages and cause infections.

Remi's care has cost about $1,300 thus far, and that could rise to $2,000 or $3,000. Daniels said all immediate donations to the TARA fund will go for Remi's care, and any additional money will replenish the fund.

Daniels asks for donations at the transfer station or holds fundraisers whenever the fund becomes depleted, she said.

Block said Remi should have the procedure done as soon as possible, but is not an immediate emergency.

“The dog's pretty stable, so it's not an emergency,” Block said. “I will fit them in as soon as they are ready to go ahead.”

c.bessette@theday.com

Twitter: Bessettetheday

Preston Animal Control Officer Patti Daniels and Caron and Alan Wunderlich are raising money for the local TARA Fund – Town Aid for Rescued Animals – to pay for extensive veterinary bills for Remi, a 5-year-old springer spaniel rescued in January and adopted by the Wunderlichs.

Remi has a major ear infection and related internal injuries caused by an embedded stalk of foxtail grass, a western species of barbed wild barley, that worked its way into his inner ear.

Donations to the TARA Fund:

Send checks made out to “Town of Preston” with TARA fund in the notation line to Preston Town Hall, 389 Route 2, Preston, CT 06365.

Daniels and Caron Wunderlich will be collecting donations Friday and Saturday, Aug. 14 and 15 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Preston Transfer Station, 108 Ross Road, Preston.

Donations also are being accepted at www.gofundme.com under the name “Help us Help Remi.”