Stopped at a light on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn on Monday afternoon, a block from her house in Windsor Terrace, Geraldine Cassone saw a little black kitten run in front of her car.

She got out, just in time to see the terrified animal jump up into the wheel well of her Toyota sport utility vehicle.

The light turned green. The kitten stayed put, somewhere in the undercarriage.

Some drivers beeped their horns, but others got out to help. A truck driver. A van driver. Three high school boys joined in. Ms. Cassone, 56, a retired school administrator, laid down a tarp on the slushy street below.

“At one point there were six or eight people under my car looking to save this cat,” she said. “As much as some people were honking and looking to get where they were going in a timely manner, it was kind of beautiful to see.”