Ed Sheeran poses for an adorable photo with Maxine the Fluffy Corgi at The Howard Stern Show

Ed Sheeran made a cheerful figure on Wednesday when he posed with Maxine the Fluffy Corgi while visiting The Howard Stern Show in New York.

The singer, 32, took several snaps with the sweet pooch on his back strapped into a backpack.

He looked relaxed in a simple white T-shirt that showed off his colorful tattoos and green pants.

Ed also posed for a photo alongside Maxine’s owner Bryan Reisberg and the Big Blue Monster.

The Shape Of You hitmaker also pulled out his trusty guitar to perform one of his latest songs on the show.

He’s had a lot to smile about lately, as Ed’s new album Subtract has become the fastest selling record of the year in just four days.

He released the album on Friday and it had sold 56,071 copies by the end of Monday.

This means it sold better than the rest of the top 25 albums, which sold a total of 54,844 copies in that period.

The previous fastest selling album of the year was Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd by Lana Del Rey.

On Friday, Ed said he feels “lighter” now that his new album Subtract is “out in the world” and people are connecting with it “on such a deep and meaningful level.”

The album is the latest in his series of mathematical symbols and was written against a backdrop of challenging events in his life last year, including the diagnosis of a tumor in his wife Cherry Seaborn while she was pregnant, the death of his close friend Jamal Edwards and a copyright battle over his 2017 hit Shape Of You.

The global star has said he used the album to channel the intense emotions emerging from this difficult time, describing the songwriting process as his “therapy.”

It comes after Ed was cleared of charges related to his 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud.” ripped off Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get it On” in Manhattan federal court on Thursday.

He had previously threatened to leave the music industry if found guilty of ripping off Gaye’s classic love ballad.

Ed, who strongly denied the accusation that his hit song stole fundamental musical elements from Marvin’s song, had faced a £79 million lawsuit brought by the heirs of the song’s co-writer, Ed Townsend .

But he heard a verdict Thursday that he was free after a jury of three men and four women deliberated for less than three hours before reaching their decision.

Out of court, Ed – who is worth £158 million – said: ‘I’m just a guy with a guitar who likes to write music for people to enjoy. I am and will not allow myself to be a piggy bank.”

Ed’s lawyer had said the case ‘should never have been brought’, and the singer put his career on the line by saying during the trial that he would be ‘done’ with music if found guilty.

The copyright lawsuit was first brought in 2018 by the estate of the late Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the 1973 R&B classic with Gaye.

It said that Ed and his co-writer Amy Wadge “copied and exploited the composition of Let’s Get It On, without permission or credit,” copying various elements, including the “melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing vocals, tempo, syncope and looping’.

Ed said he missed his grandmother’s funeral in Ireland because of the trial and that he “will never get that time back.”

The verdict concluded a two-week trial with Sheeran appearing in court as the singer insisted, at times angrily, that the trial posed a threat to all musicians making their own music.

A year ago, Ed won a copyright battle in the UK over his 2017 hit ‘Shape of You’.

Outside of court, Ed said he doesn’t want to be abused. “I’m just a guy with a guitar who likes to write music for people to enjoy,” he said. “I am and will never allow myself to be a piggy bank for anyone to shake.”

Thinking Out Loud was released in 2014 and won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year.