SYLVA, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Dr. Harold Sims, better known to friends and his community as “Catman,” was the founder of The American Museum of the House Cat, a quirky art museum featuring all kinds of cat memorabilia, and operator of its beneficiary, Catman2 Shelter, a no-kill, cage-free cat shelter and adoption center.

Sims passed away on November 17, 2024, at the age of 89. The legacy he left behind is one of love, curiosity and acceptance. He was well known for his personal tours of his museum, an extension of his own private collection of cat artwork. Money raised by the Museum of the Housecat would go to support Catman2, which upon opening in 2002 was the first no-kill shelter in Jackson County, where it continues to operate today. Sims was environmentally conscious and a social activist, advocating against hatred with his own civil rights campaign, “Mother Cats No Matter Where They Mate, Never Teach Their Kittens to Hate.” Sims’ official obituary can be found here.

A portion of Sims’ collected artwork and memorabilia will be sold at his estate sale from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., July 11–13, at his home in Cullowhee, N.C. The full address will be unveiled on the estate sale website, estatesales.org, on Thursday, July 10.

According to a Facebook post by Kaleb Lynch, the Catman2 shelter director and a close friend of Sims, “he wanted to continue making an impact long after he left this world and that is what his estate will do.”

“Lots of folks knew Harold was a cat lover and collected cat art and memorabilia (hence the creation of WNC Cat Museum), but he was also an avid hobbyist and collector of all kinds of stuff,” Lynch wrote. “Trains, art glass, music boxes, Native American art, old magazines, antiques, creepy things just to scare me and piss me off, fine art, funny art, weird stuff… you name it and he probably had one or two lying around somewhere. A man of varied interests and luckily for us all, a man who deeply valued putting good out into the world via animal welfare, education and environmental protection.”

For more information about Sims, Catman2 or his museum, visit www.wnccatmuseum.org.

Read more about The American Museum of the House Cat in our Strangeville story here.