How Kevin Spacey found his adorable puppy

Kevin Spacey on The Ellen Show.

Kevin Spacey was up bright and early to chat about the third season of House Of Cards to Ellen DeGeneres on her show.

However, it turned out the host was far more interested in the 55-year-old's adorable little pooch Boston and asked the actor how he chose her name.

The Oscar winner explained that he had a strong connection to the East Coast city after filming there, adding: "I have a lot of friends there. It's got a great theatre community. I go there all the time."

Spacey , who was casually dressed in a grey shirt with a mandarin collar and black trousers, added that he was "incredibly upset" and "glued to the television" when the Boston marathon bombing took place in April 2013.

"I was also really impressed in how the city was responding and I felt like I wanted to do something," he continued. "So I called the mayor of Boston and asked if I could come very quietly and I spent five days in Boston. And really I was there to try to meet as many survivors as I could and doctors and nurses, surgeons.

"But as we were about to go into the emergency room to start to meet the doctors and the nurses the woman administrator who was helping us said, 'Well, before we go in, would you like to see the truck full of puppies?'"

The audience laughed as he went on, "And I said, 'Well of course I'd like to see a truck full of puppies.' There were like 23 dogs and there was this one in the corner and I looked at this one and she was looking at me and I said, 'Who's that?' and she said, 'We call her Cuddles.'"

"I said, 'Why do you call her cuddles?' and she said 'You're about to find out.' So I went over and I picked this dog up and I did not get her to here (indicating his chest), she grabbed me around the throat, and hung down my entire body and licked my face like I had honey on it for about 15 minutes."

Kevin Spacey on The Ellen Show.

Ellen flashed up snaps of the puppy nibbling Kevin's nose on the big screen as he added: "And that's her literally a few weeks after I got her. And her name is Boston, I named her in honor of the city."

He introduced the pup to fans on Twitter in May 2013 with teasers showing a paw and a tail before revealing a quartet of shots with Boston climbing all over him as he lay on a black leather couch.

"Mystery solved. New member of my family. Her name is Boston in honor of the city. @animalleague RT," the celebrity tweeted.

Of course, Kevin didn't escape Ellen without playing one of her quizzes, facing off against five-year old presidential expert Macey Hensley in a game of Spacey Vs. Macey- Presidential Edition.

The star, who plays President Frank Underwood in House Of Cards, suffered a humiliating defeat with good grace as he joked his way through the game.

The streaming service released the entire third season of the political drama in February and has announced that season four will follow in 2016.

- Daily Mail