C++ destructor called early - c++

Question

I have a class that manages a SDL_Surface for me, and I want to make it so that I don't have to worry about freeing the surface. I have this code so far:
//In Entity.h
class Entity
{
public:
int x, y, width, height;
Entity(std::string);
~Entity();
void render();
private:
SDL_Surface* texture;
};
//In Entity.cpp
Entity::~Entity()
{
printf("Destroying an Entity");
SDL_FreeSurface(texture);
}
//In main.cpp
Entity puppy("puppy.bmp");
void render() {
clearScreen();
puppy.render();
}
int main (int argc, char **argv) {
printf("started");
init();
bool done = false;
while(!done)
{
...
// Draw the screen
printf("About to render");
render();
SDL_Flip(screen);
}
SDL_Quit();
return 0;
}
When I run it, I get Program received signal EXC_BAD_ACCESS, Could not access memory.
Reason: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at address: 0x0000000000000260
0x000000010002fd9b in SDL_DisplayFormat () Am I correct in assuming that the destructor is getting called early and it's trying to render a NULL texture? The code works fine if I don't have the destructor and just waste memory. I've also tried it with puppy being a local variable and passing it to render, but that doesn't help.
EDIT: The code runs for only a second, then crashes. It doesn't wait to exit the loop. Also, stepping through the program with gdb reveals the puppy to be drawn at least once for some reason. I've uploaded the full source here: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/2223161/sdlgame.zip

Answer 1

This is a global variable:
Entity puppy("puppy.bmp");
it gets destroyed after your main() ends, so your SDL_FreeSurface gets called after SDL_Quit(). Is it valid? Check with documentation.

Answer 2

You're looking at the wrong end of the problem. Your code ran for me after I moved the initialization of puppy into main.
By placing puppy as a global object, its constructor runs prior to SDL_Init. The constructor calls load_image, which calls SDL_DisplayFormat. The documentation warns:
You have to call SDL_Init before using the SDL_DisplayFormat function. If you don't, your program will crash with an access violation.
http://sdl.beuc.net/sdl.wiki/SDL_DisplayFormat
Of course, you should also ensure the destructor is called prior to SDL_Quit(), as is proper, though that's not what's causing your access violation at the moment.