About Google, would your friend maybe consider taking care of him for a couple of months while you set up, he recovers, and see how happy he is with them? You could make a definitive decision after that so you aren't quite so heart broken and there's more hope for being together with a healthy kitty?
I've almost definitely given in to the idea of letting my friends take care of him... he's already lived with one of them, and her cat. But a couple of months would be more like a couple of years, probably -- see, we're moving from one corner of the country to the other, and getting back would be a chore in and of itself, much less finding a rental that takes pets in the meantime.
I'm holding out hope that I can get back to bring him home to me, but if he's happy with my friends and their animals, I'd actually be more content knowing he's HAPPY (with time) rather than take a chance on him being unhappy with all of us and no other animals :/
It's a weird conundrum. I called out of work today and I'm still thinking about it a LOT, but I'm much more okay with the idea than I was last night, because I know it would save US money and HIM his health.