"It's okay, animals can't use scissors."

"Why not? Are they not strong enough?"
"No, they're probably strong enough, they just wouldn't know how to use them."
"Why not? Because they've never seen them before?"
"Maybe."
"But if they saw them would they know how to use them?"
"No because they don't have fingers."
"Oh, so they can't fit their paws and stuff in the holes."
"Right."
"So they couldn't really cut the rope then. I get it."
"Yep, so there's no need to worry about that."

This is an excerpt of the conversation I just had with my daughter. We're vacationing in Florida and were out on the boat we just rented when she started what turned out to be a rather long conversation about some scenario she conjured up in her head about her dad. Something about me driving the boat while pulling him behind and he holding on to a rope and then some animals see him and cut the rope with some scissors and what he would do, would he be okay, and how would he get back on the boat. I think I successfully allayed her fears, although I believe we missed a nice chunk of the boat ride.