I'm quite happy with the results of this redesign. Someone had mentioned her as a cougar [when at first she was supposed to have been a lion] and I liked the idea so she's officially a cougar/osprey/black mamba-type chimera. I added some more feathering on her hind legs in addition to the tail feathers. A small note - Nokomis doesn't have one speck of fur on her. Everything is feathered, though throughout her main body, the feathers are so fine that it looks like fur.

References:
Wings/osprey part: http://www.gbosprey.ca/Images/Osprey-diving.gif
More wing references: http://ombry.deviantart.com/art/Win.....rt-1-116928889 - this was how I was trying to draw where the smaller feathers on Nokomis's body turned into the larger wing feathers because I liked how it looked. Didn't _quite_ get it, but ah well.
Black Mamba references:
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif.....lack-mamba.jpg
http://local.snakehunter.org/pics/BlackMamba.jpg
Cougar: http://stupidcelebrities.net/wp-content/cougar.jpg
http://www.richwooders.com/appalach.....n-lion-wva.jpg