Saying goodbye to an old friend. Ed Sheeran revealed that his first cat, Graham, passed away with a throwback tribute to his former furry companion.
The “Galway Girl” singer, 28, shared a photo of Graham as a kitten next to his guitar on Instagram on Thursday, August 1. He captioned the photo with a broken heart emoji.
Graham was rescued by Sheeran and was looked after by his manager, Stuart Shaw, and his partner, Liberty Shaw, while he was on tour.
Liberty revealed that the animal, who had since been renamed Baby Ba Boo, was killed after being struck by a vehicle. “Our lovely little bud Baby Ba Boo aka Graham the Kitten passed away last night after being hit by a car,” she wrote on Instagram on Thursday. “We are absolutely heartbroken. He was such a dude. Funny and clever and best mates with a massive German Shepherd. We are going [to] miss you so much. Thanks for all the fun.”
The musician opened up about missing Graham while on the road in an interview with All In in August 2014. “I missed Graham growing up, pretty much,” he said at the time, adding, “But I’ll be there in his later life.”
He also noted that the once-tiny kitten had grown to rather sizable proportions: “He’s [gotten] really fat now.”
The Grammy winner, who had four cats as of 2017, has a soft spot for felines. Sheeran not only mentioned his four-legged friends while announcing his engagement to now-wife Cherry Seaborn (“Our cats are chuffed”), he launched an Instagram page for pets Callipo and Dorito — a.k.a. Squish and Pusslé — in July 2018.
“My cats set up their own Instagram, clever pussles [sic],” he alerted fans at the time. “Follow their daily routine @thewibbles.”
Sheeran has since been posting the pair’s adventures sporadically on the account, which boasts 374K followers. His most recent share went up up two months ago and celebrated a milestone for the felines: “These sweet angels turned 3 at the start of May.”
