A sad way to end the year

For those of you that knew her, Hannah died today. It was (is) a bit of a shock. She was 7 1/2 years old (about middle aged for a chinchilla). Krista got her shortly after we met and Hannah has been with her ever since. We let Hannah out to run around fairly frequently and she does well enough. One of the risks though is heat because chinchillas have a very dense coat. Today she was hopping around as usual and seemed fine. She had been out for a while and we were just discussing that it was time to put her back in her cage when we heard her barking (a noise they make when they aren't happy). She was having a seizure. She died seconds later. This is particularly hard for us. While we never like seeing our animals die, Hannah was special to us. We knew we should be careful of the heat, but we didn't know she was as hot as she was. Just before she seemed happy and normal: ears up, eyes bright. We will miss her greatly.