1. A computer-implemented method comprising: modifying a register method of a Finalizer class to cause the register method to pass, to a specified programmatic mechanism, an object that was passed to the register method; modifying a finalize method of a class of the object to (a) cause the object to invoke a first method of the specified programmatic mechanism when the finalize method is invoked by a virtual machine and (b) prevent a remainder of the finalize method from completing under specified conditions, thereby causing a call to the finalize method to remain undispatched; wherein the first method, when invoked, (a) adds, to the object, a reference that temporarily prevents the object from being deleted and (b) records an identifier of the object.