Child recalled no small animals (7)
I believe the answer is:
stepson
'child' is the definition.
(stepson is a kind of child)
'recalled no small animals' is the wordplay.
'recalled' is a reversal indicator.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'animals' becomes 'pets' (pet is a kind of animal**).
'no'+'s'+'pets'='nospets'
'nospets' back-to-front is 'STEPSON'.
(Other definitions for stepson that I've seen before include "could be issue for partner" , "Male offspring of partner's former marriage" , "younger member of family" , "partner's sprog" , "unrelated issue" .)