Animal left with the French mother (5)
I believe the answer is:
llama
'animal' is the definition.
(llamas are animals)
'left with the french mother' is the wordplay.
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the french' becomes 'la' (one of the French words for 'the').
'mother' becomes 'ma' (ma can mean mother).
'l'+'la'+'ma'='LLAMA'
(Other definitions for llama that I've seen before include "South American native" , "20vian beast" , "Load-carrier" , "Pack carrier" , "provider of wool" .)