Crossword Genius

Chaotic drama and love sheltering sick animal (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

armadillo

'animal' is the definition.
(armadillo is a kind of animal)

'chaotic drama and love sheltering sick' is the wordplay.
'chaotic' indicates anagramming the letters.
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'sheltering' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'sick' becomes 'ill' ('ill' can be a synonym of 'sick').
'drama' after 'o' is 'odrama'.
'odrama' anagrammed gives 'armado'.
'armado' going around 'ill' is 'ARMADILLO'.

(Other definitions for armadillo that I've seen before include "protected species" , "Mammal with protective plates" , "one of the Animals makes appearance" , "Animal covered with long plates" , "Toothless Native American" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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