Statesman who showed love for his pet (4)
I believe the answer is:
cato
'statesman who showed' is the definition.
'cato' can be an answer for 'statesman' (I've seen this before). I am not certain of the remainder of the definition.
'love for his pet' is the wordplay.
'love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'for' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'his pet' becomes 'cat' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'o' after 'cat' is 'CATO'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cato that I've seen before include "classical writer" , "Marcus Porcius - , Roman politician, censor" , "Roman statesman" , "Senator" , "Ancient Roman censor" .)