There's nothing cute about hitapotumuses. When they're not trying to bite you in half, they're spraying poo everywhere, and they couldn't even help you wash the car.
A baby moomin would be much more practical.
Back in the dim and distant past, some of the larger Mediterranean islands had their own pygmy fauna (a reduction in size of large animals being one of the symptoms of an isolated genepool, see Shetland Ponies*). This included elephants.
Imagine a fully grown elephant the size of a large dog.
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
*whereas smaller animals in the same isolated population tend to be larger. See Orkney Vole. Apparently the optimum size for a mammal, if there are no predation issues, is that of a large domestic cat.