Nurturing cat returned with gutted fish (9)
I believe the answer is:
mothering
'nurturing cat returned with gutted fish' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'returned with gutted fish' is the wordplay.
'returned with' becomes 'mot' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'gutted' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (to gut something is to remove its insides).
'fish' becomes 'herring' (herring is a type of fish).
'herring' with its centre taken out is 'hering'.
'mot'+'hering'='MOTHERING'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for mothering that I've seen is " Looking after".)