MANKATO — Tell the dogs to thank Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones for the fact that their kennels get a good cleaning each Wednesday.

It’s a long story. But Dave Johnson is a Stones fan. And it was a Stones concert that brought him to Minnesota. If he hadn’t come for that, he might not have checked into that job offer from the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center. Had he not accepted, he might not have lived in Mankato. And if he hadn’t lived in Mankato, he wouldn’t be volunteering at the Blue Earth Nicollet County Humane Society. And if he hadn’t volunteered ... Well, you get the picture.

Johnson, a retired psychiatrist, loves animals. He loves them so much that, when he comes to volunteer at the shelter, he doesn’t just walk dogs. He spends a half day each Wednesday cleaning out dog kennels. Yep: dog poo duty, the kind of stuff many volunteers won’t come near.

“It’s necessary work and it gives me a lot of satisfaction to keep them healthy and clean and give them a better life,” Johnson said.

Johnson, who attended Stanford University and Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, was born in New York City but moved around a lot because of his father’s career. He calls Yankton, S.D., home.

For 20 years, though, he worked as a forensic psychiatrist in Pueblo, Colo. While living in Colorado, Johnson was drawn to animals. He volunteered at two different shelters while there.

In one case, he met a dog that, because of the shelter’s rules, was in line for euthanasia. He was dangerous, and the shelter dubbed him “unadoptable.” On the dog’s final day, Johnson took him home and named him Scarab, and the dog lived its final years in peace.

Johnson’s also always loved the Rolling Stones.

“Keith Richards is the definition of rock ’n’ roll,” Johnson said.

He loved them so much that he and his wife, Linda, came out to visit a relative who invited them to Minnesota to see the Stones play in the Twin Cities.

While here, he decided, he’d visit the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center. They’d been courting him, trying to get him to leave Colorado and come work for them. The Stones trip gave him a chance to investigate the offer. And in the end he wound up moving to Minnesota.

He would have settled in St. Peter, but a city ordinance wouldn’t allow all of his dogs and cats to live in town. So he relocated in Mankato.

Soon after arriving, he started volunteering for BENCHS, but that was before they had their new facility — he was one of the volunteers who went downstairs, in the dark basement where dogs were kept.

“It was like working in a dungeon, or a sewer system,” he said.

And the new place?

“It’s like the dawn after a dark night.”

Johnson commends the staff on their hard work and says their success at finding homes for the pets should be applauded.

Johnson doesn’t just clean kennels. He’s also a familiar sight on the walking path behind the shelter, a shelter dog at his side.

He’s also a regular at the Mankato dog park. If you see him there, chances are he’s just been to the shelter to pick up Toby or Wyatt or some other dog that could use a good open run.