JAVA PROGRAMMING HELP

I have created a program called Run Kitty Run where I have made a interactive GUI but I need help adding functionality to the Jbuttons. I need the buttons to move the ("=^.^=") string up down left or right across the board everytime the button is pressed. I think my error is in the ActionPerformed class. HERE IS MY SOURCE CODE BELOW please copy and paste it and see that I need to fix

import java.awt.*;

import javax.swing.*;

import java.awt.BorderLayout;

import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;

import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

public class CheckerBoard extends JFrame implements ActionListener{

private final int ROWS = 8;

private final int COLS = 8;

private final int GAP = 2;

private final int NUM = ROWS * COLS;

private JPanel pane = new JPanel(new GridLayout(ROWS,COLS,GAP,GAP));

private JPanel[][] panel = new JPanel[ROWS][COLS];

private JLabel cat = new JLabel("=^.^=");

private JButton up = new JButton("UP");

private JButton down = new JButton("down");

private JButton left = new JButton("LEFT");

private JButton right = new JButton("RIGHT");

private Color color1 = Color.WHITE;

private Color color2 = Color.BLUE;

private Color tempColor;

public CheckerBoard() {

super ("Run Kitty Run");

int row = 4;

int col = 4;

add(pane);

add(up,BorderLayout.NORTH);

add(down,BorderLayout.SOUTH);

add(left,BorderLayout.WEST);

add(right,BorderLayout.EAST);

for (int x = 0; x < ROWS; ++x)

{

for(int y = 1; y < ROWS; ++y)

{

panel[x][y] = new JPanel();

pane.add(panel[x][y]);

if(x % ROWS == 0 && y % ROWS ==1)

{

tempColor = color1;

color1 = color2;

color2 = tempColor;

}

if(x % 2 == 0 && y % 2 == 1 || x % 2 == 1 && y % 2 == 0)

{

panel[x][y].setBackground(color1);

}

else {

panel[x][y].setBackground(color2);

}

panel[row][col].add(cat);

}

}

}

@Override

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

Object source = e.getSource();

int row = 4;

int col = 4;

if(source == up) {

++row;

panel[row][col].add(cat);

}

if(source == down) {

--row;

panel[row][col].add(cat);

}

if(source == left) {

--col;

panel[row][col].add(cat);

}

if(source == right) {

++col;

panel[row][col].add(cat);

}

}

public static void main(String[] args) {

// TODO Auto-generated method stub

CheckerBoard frame = new CheckerBoard();

frame.setSize(300,300);

frame.setVisible(true);

}

}