Declaring an object before initializing it in c++

You can't do this directly in C++ since the object is constructed when you define it with the default constructor.

You could, however, run a parameterized constructor to begin with:

Animal a(getAppropriateString());

Or you could actually use something like the ?: operator to determine the correct string. (Update: @Greg gave the syntax for this. See that answer)

You can't declare a variable without calling a constructor. However, in your example you could do the following:

Animal a(happyDay() ? "puppies" : "toads");

You can't use references here, since as soon as you'd get out of the scope, the reference would point to a object that would be deleted.

Really, you have two choices here:

1- Go with pointers:

Animal* a;
if( happyDay() ) 
    a = new Animal( "puppies" ); //constructor call
else
    a = new Animal( "toads" );

// ...
delete a;

or with a smart pointer

#include <memory>

std::unique_ptr<Animal> a;
if( happyDay() ) 
    a = std::make_unique<Animal>( "puppies" );
else
    a = std::make_unique<Animal>( "toads" );

2- Add an Init method to Animal:

class Animal 
{
public:
    Animal(){}
    void Init( const std::string& type )
    {
        m_type = type;
    }
private:
    std:string m_type;
};

Animal a;
if( happyDay() ) 
    a.Init( "puppies" );
else
    a.Init( "toads" );

I'd personally go with option 2.