The blinking animal has disappeared (7)
I believe the answer is:
doggone
'the blinking' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'animal has disappeared' is the wordplay.
'animal' becomes 'dog' (type of animal).
'has' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'disappeared' becomes 'gone' (going is a kind of disappearing).
'dog'+'gone'='DOGGONE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for doggone that I've seen before include "expression used by irritated person" , "Infernal" .)