Zoophily

Coincidentally,  St Valentine's Day 2016 was to fall on a Sunday.  Spotting this a good twelve months in advance,  Eclogue decided to make a bid for this slot in the Enigmatic Variations schedule and the submission was duly made.  After several editorial consultations the puzzle was approved for publication on the appointed day.

A previous device Eclogue had used in an EV puzzle was used here:  A word in each clue had been anagrammed into one or more consecutive words in the clue – these had to be unscrambled prior to solving, normally destroying the overall sense.  The first letters of the correct words, in clue order, provided a modified quotation, the replaced subject of which would enable solvers to deduce the 18 contiguous cells which should be deleted and replaced by a single continuous line to demonstrate ZOOPHILY.

This message spelt out by initial letters of unscrambled words in clues reads “The more he looked inside the more HE wasn't there”.  The quotation is taken from THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER by A A MILNE and the HE in question is PIGLET.  Therefore, solvers were required to delete the three instances of PIGLET in the grid which form a continuous loop and replace it with a heart-shaped loop instead to demonstrate their ZOOPHILY (love of animals).

Published as Enigmatic Variations No. 1214: Zoophily by Eclogue on Sunday 14 February 2016.