A cat?

She is into birding, and knows I am too so that's why she asked. I don't think it's cat. Frankly, I thought it looked like a flying monkey from the Wizard of Oz. I will ask her if she got any better shots are more info.

It looks like its head is green. I think I can see big talons holding on to the limb. Really weird!!
If the limb were on the ground, it would definitely look more like an animal than a bird. Would love to know what it turns out to be.

I might make an educated guess of Black-crowned Night Heron, but it's tough to support that based on this photo. Although I wouldn't argue with flying monkey from Wizard of Oz.

Here is the second picture from my cousin, definitely not a flying monkey. I've also included her guess.
"Im thinking some kind of hawk. It had the brown and white horizontal stripes on its chest/belly area. "
We get a lot of ospreys in that area if it helps. And a bunch of Redtailed Hawks.

If it was a hawk, in that environment, and it had brown/white horizontal markings on the chest, it would be either Red-shouldered Hawk or Broad-winged Hawk. Impossible to tell from these photos.