Sapient but non-anthropomorphized animals. Could be lighthearted but could also be very dark and show the typical constantly-threatened life of a wild animal except now with sapience to comprehend their circumstances more fully and suffer from existential despair, which is what I’ve been led to believe Watership Down is. I would not be playing the latter. I bring it up because now “will you be a good partner for my survival chances” could become a factor as well as basic chemistry.

Animals are cute and I always liked stories with animal characters, but I preferred them less anthropomorphic in design. Would easily accept that they could talk and had civilization though, a lot of interesting stories need your characters to have relationships and communicate in a way your readers will understand easily.