Eamonn’s got a new canine companion!

Recalling the moment, a year and a half ago, when their eyes first met, he said: “The chemistry was just immediately there”.

Speaking to The Times in Ballymena at the weekend, the Sky News Sunrise host said no-one was more surprised than him when he fell for the little black dog while making a celebrity appearance at a Dogs Trust Rehoming Centre in Uxbridge, on the outskirts of London.

“My 10-year-old son, Jack, had been pestering me and his mum (fellow television presenter Ruth Langsford) for years for a dog but I have never been a doggy person,” said Eamonn during his visit on Saturday to Dogs Trust, Ballymena.

“I never had any interest in dogs. I was always too busy, too house proud - I didn’t want hairs over everything or to have to clear up a mess”.

That attitude changed in an instant when Eamonn’s gaze fell on Magdalene, or Maggie as the Holmes family call her.

“Two friends at Sky, Jacquie Beltrao and Charlotte Hawkins, had pleaded with me to cut the ribbon at the Centre which was celebrating five years and I said to them ‘Why?, I don’t do dogs!’

“I went along to give them a bit of press and I couldn’t believe what these people did”.

Eamon admitted he was immediately taken by the work and aims of Dogs Trust not least their ethos of never putting a healthy dog down.

“I was taking a walk around and I saw this little black dog, it was like a wee fox - like Basil Brush - I’d never seen a dog like it before and it changed me. The chemistry was just immediately there.

“I went home to Ruth and said ‘you know the way Jack is always pushing us to get him a dog, well...”

There was a shakey time for the Holmes family, however, when they found that Maggie had already been adopted but the adoption didn’t work out and within weeks she was finally theirs.

“This wee dog has transformed our lives,” said Eamonn.

“We found the dog for us at Dogs Trust and in the Ballymena Centre there will be the right dog for YOU too”.

Now a keen supporter of Dogs Trust, Eamonn regularly raises funds for them and his latest donation amounted to £5,000.

He said he was delighted on Saturday to come to Ballymena to support the work of the local Rehoming Centre at Teeshan and help them encourage responsible dog ownership by backing their microchipping campaign at an event that afternoon in the Tower Centre.

Accompanied by his son Jack, Eamonn was also taken on a tour of the Ballymena Centre by Dogs Trust Campaign Manager for Northern Ireland, Ronnie Milsop, during which he met and chatted to staff and volunteers.

“It is very important to promote responsible ownership because Northern Ireland is the worst part of the UK for strays - the neglect and abandonment problem here is massive. That’s something that I didn’t think about in the past but it’s something that I think about now,” said Eamonn.

“Before coming here this morning I tweeted ‘Give a dog a home’. I just want to say to people - ‘You can find room in your life for a dog’”.