Crossword Genius

Cartoon dog currently in heartless story (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

snowy

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'cartoon dog currently in heartless story' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.

'currently in heartless story' is the wordplay.
'currently' becomes 'now' (right now).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'heartless' means to remove the middle letters.
'story' with its middle removed is 'sy'.
'now' put inside 'sy' is 'SNOWY'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for snowy that I've seen before include "- Mountains; - owl" , "Like cold weather" , "Tintin's dog - describing winter weather" , "Covered in flakes" , "Wintry" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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