The boy, whose ordeal mirrors that of the character Mowgli from Rudyard Kipling The Jungle Book, was discovered by police in Misiones, in Argentina, surrounded by eight wild cats.
Doctors believe the animals snuggled up with him during freezing nights which would otherwise have killed him.
The boy was seen eating scraps foraged by the animals while they licked him, it has been claimed.
Policewoman Alicia Lorena Lindgvist discovered the child by a canal in the Christ King district of the city.
She said: "I was walking and noticed a gang of cats sitting very close together. It is unusual to see so many like that so I went for a closer look and that's where I saw him. The boy was lying at the bottom of a gutter. There were all these cats on top of him licking him because he was really dirty.
"When I walked over they became really protective and spat at me. They were keeping the boy warm while he slept."
Police have found the boy's father who is homeless and said he had lost the boy several days ago while out collecting cardboard to sell. He told officers cats had always been protective of his son.
One day it was really really cold and snowy outside...I love the snow so i decided to go outside with a few of my good friends and play in it!!! We were throwing snow balls at each other and making snow angels when we heard something in the bushes out by my little barn! We are all very curious people so we decided to go check it out and omg we walked inside the barn and there was...RUDOLPH!!!!! It was so hard to believe, so we closed our eyes and opened them back up and he was still there! We ended up having one of the funnest times of our lives out there playing with ol' Rudolph and playing in the snow! It was a pretty cool deal!
