The OED dates the first recorded use of this letter to mean "kiss" back to a 1763 British letter
X
Jacob & Wilhelm, who gave us "Snow White" & "The Golden Goose"
the Brothers Grimm
Related to dogs & wolves, foxes are part of this scientific family
canine
Things go south when they go here "in a handbasket"
hell
Shortened a word
abbreviated
Take it slow! This rain forest tree-dwelling mammal can take weeks to digest a meal & can hold its breath longer than a dolphin
a sloth
Rod, short story collections as well as "The Twilight Zone"; Robert, "The President's Plane is Missing"
Serling
Term for a cozy room in your house, or a cozy fox burrow
a den
A football running play, or when a plane's tracking is given to another control center
a handoff
Spirited someone away, likely illegally
abducted
1980s Russia traded subs & other ships for this red, white & blue soda brand, said to briefly make it 1 of the world's largest navies
Pepsi
Twins Matt & Ross, Emmy-nominated for writing "Chapter Nine: The Gate" for the television show "Stranger Things"
the Duffer Brothers
Writing about foxes? It's required that you use the adjective "bushy" to describe this body part
the tail
I heard it this way, directly from the original source
firsthand
Turned away one's eyes, from the Latin for "to turn"
averted
The generic name for this cloth bag comes from the same-named Belgian town where it was first made, though the E & L can get reversed
duffel
Henry, "Roderick Hudson" in 1876; William, "Essays in Radical Empiricism", published posthumously in 1912
James
This species, also known as the common fox, is the most widely distributed carnivore on land
the red fox
Proverbially, "Close only counts in" this game "& hand grenades"
horseshoes
Aided or assisted, specifically in the commission of a crime
abetted
Snoop Dogg tried to rent this entire European nation, Vaduz & all, for a video shoot. Doable? Yes, but Snoop didn't give enough notice
Liechtenstein
Frank, the 2005 memoir "Teacher Man"; Malachy, who wrote "A Couple of Blaguards" with his brother
McCourt
Only about 15 inches long, the fennec is the world's smallest fox & lives in this largest desert of Africa
the Sahara
The ends are left hanging in this long necktie that uses a slipknot
a four-in-hand
Played piano at the soprano recital
accompanied