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Little doggy darlings with strings on? (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

puppets

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'little doggy darlings with strings on?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'darlings with strings on?' is the wordplay.
'darlings' becomes 'pets' ('pet' can be a synonym of 'darling').
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'strings on?' becomes 'pup' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'pets' put after 'pup' is 'PUPPETS'.

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(Other definitions for puppets that I've seen before include "Dolls on strings" , "Stringfellows?" , "Marionettes" , "They're operated from above with strings" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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