My 1,1/2 year old cat died suddenly

[Buznapper]

Its not a nice way to introduce myself to this forum, but I feel I need to talk about this, maybe enlighten someone, or get closure.
Our one and a half year old Persian mix cat 'Peanut' died this morning at 8am extremely suddenly. The whole thing took 30 seconds. One minute he was walking normally, the next my girlfriend was calling me over and he was lying on the ground making sounds, chest convusing and completely limp. In less than 30 seconds he stopped moving. It was horrible and I am coming to terms with this sweet/fiesty/loving/happy friend of ours being gone.
I wanted at least some answers, so I did a little research on sudden death in cats, the first article I found about a cat with a heart murmur was exactly the same cat as peanut was [http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=9842]. Our cat would breath loudly occasionally but we put it down the the very small nostrils he had. I looked further into sudden death in cats and found that Persians are predisposed to something called 'hypertrophic cardiomyopathy” (HCM). This is a condition in which the muscle of the heart is abnormal, resulting in a thickening of the heart walls in the left ventricle. This is the lower chamber of the heart, responsible for sending blood to the tissues of the body. Death can come from a fatally abnormal heart rhythm.
I thought I'd post this here, I encourage anyone with a Persian to pencil them in for a physical to see if a heart murur is present. I would hate for anyone to go through what I did with ours. Our cat was so healthy and strong and active, and such a condition is not something to take lightly. I believe there are medications to prevent such an episode.
Anyway, hello everyone, its been a tough day. I want to celebrate his life because it was fabulous, and his death was painless. I'll be sure to post a photo of Peanut later so you can all see what he cutie he really was.
Oliver