I was messing around trying to get a good low poly character and my result was a fox that was only 156 faces! The fox is fully rigged but the tail is a bezier curve that gets controlled by an empty. The rendering time is approximately 1.3 seconds. The ears are controlled by drivers from the ear bones so make sure that in User Preferences: Files, you have "Auto Run Python Scripts" checked. Oh and if you make something with this fox make sure to post it in the comments so I can see it! The Blender version is 2.79 using Blender Render.
Aww, it's cute