Down-to-earth little thing in a fur coat (6)
I believe the answer is:
gerbil
'thing in a fur coat' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both animals as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'down-to-earth little' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'earth' could be 'ge' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'ge' is present in the answer.
'little' could be 'l' (abbreviation) and 'l' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'rbi' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gerbil that I've seen before include "Mouse-like desert rodent with long hind legs" , "Burrower with a bushy tail" , "Burrowing mouse-like rodent" , "Mouse-like rodent (G not J)" , "Small burrowing rodent" .)