He prepared tea, the child went outside with the cat (7)
I believe the answer is:
cheetah
'the cat' is the definition.
(cheetah is a kind of cat)
'he prepared tea the child went outside' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'he' could be 'che' and 'che' is found within the answer.
an anagram of 'tea' is 'eta' which is present in the answer.
A single letter 'h' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
'with' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cheetah that I've seen before include "Carnivorous predator" , "spotted in Africa" , "Very fast mammal" , "Beast" , "Spotted creature" .)