Ed Sheeran Reveals the Ingenious Way His Girlfriend Rescued Their Cat After It Jumped Out the Window

When one of Ed Sheeran‘s cats escaped his home, his girlfriend Cherry Seaborn implemented the purr-fect rescue plan!

A proud owner of two female felines with snack-inspired names (Dorito and Calippo), Sheeran told PEOPLE last week, “Dorito jumped out of a three-story window yesterday!”

“Cherry opened the window to let some air in, and she just jumped out,” the singer — whose new album ÷ currently tops the Billboard 200 chart — explained. “Cherry obviously freaked out; she’s in this closed-off garden that we can’t get into because it’s not our garden. So Cherry tied all of her scarves together onto a laundry basket and put food in it and lowered it down and picked her back up. What an idiot, though!”

Sheeran, 26, and Seaborn — a 24-year-old risk advisory consultant he’s knows since he was 11 — began dating in 2015 and have had their cat companions for one year.

“Me and Cherry literally had them from birth, and they think that we’re their mother, from our warmth and our smells,” Sheeran said of the sisters, who make frequent cameos on his Instagram since he’s returned from his year-long social media break.

Sheeran said his girlfriend and his longtime pal Taylor Swift have bonded over their shared affinity for cats.

“Her and Taylor have hung out without me quite a few times; I think they have gal chats,” he said. “I don’t know what they get up to, talking about cats or whatever.”

For more on Ed Sheeran, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere now.

Having two pets is likely preparing the “Shape of You” singer for parenthood — not that he’s planning to start a family imminently.

“I actually think the meaning of life is to start a family and pass on knowledge to them and be loved and be loving, so that is definitely on the cards,” Sheeran said. “But not any time soon. I don’t have any time anytime soon. It’s something I really want to put a lot of time into, as well. I don’t want to be constantly on the road trying to raise a child.”

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Sheeran’s new album ÷ is out now; he’ll kick off his North American tour in June.

from PEOPLE.com