Greetings,

This is the cyber home of Pax Boxers and Audrey Schnell, their general factotum. Boxers have been my companions for many years and are one of my greatest interests. However, I’ve engaged in other areas and will show some of them to you; parts of this web page are aimed at giving back some of the riches that I’ve gathered and I invite you to explore it and enjoy.

I was born, the eldest of four children, to Ernest & Winifred Griffiths in Reading, Berkshire UK. No, we’re not getting into dates. As a child, my aim was to become a physician. Although I didn’t quite fulfill that dream, I spent many years practicing anaesthesia, in the United States. In fact, I came to the US with a plan to do the training, work in the Near East to get a stake, then go back to medical school in London. It didn’t happen. I met Theodore Schnell and we married. One year I got Ted a Boxer puppy for his birthday and that was the beginning.

We named her Cindy and, fairly soon, there was need for some obedience training. I read a how-to book and began. Before too long, I was recalling her, off leash, for fifty yards, or so, in a big open field, adjacent to Holcombe Boulevard …. a very busy Houston street. A lady drove by, stopped her car on a side street and introduced herself; she was a trainer! Now, I think that the possibilities of me and my dog in that unfenced area must have terrified her. I joined her classes and we did rather well. Nobody ever had explained the CD system to me, so, when we only scored 160 at the first trial, I thought that that was it, and quit.

Time went on and we got other Boxers and registered them under the Auted’s prefix. Pretty original, weren’t we? We bred some litters and did a little showing in conformation . I joined some dog clubs and, eventually, accepted election for various offices in them.

After thirteen years, Ted and I ended our marriage, although we later became good friends. He loved the Boxers, too. The show and club parts never caught his interest, but, he had a terrific eye for good conformation. He died some time ago and I was thankful to be able to help during those last days. We were not blessed with children.

Pax began in 1970 as a new start in Boxers; the Latin meaning (peace) was evocative for me with the plus of brevity … lots of letters left for puppy names. More of Pax, in its own segment.

Among my other interests are home improvement, gardening, hand crafts, reading, desktop publishing, classical music, opera and scuba diving.

Since I stopped practicing anaesthesia there has been more time for other pursuits although, sadly, my get up and go has become less. We’re still showing, both in conformation and obedience. Currently we have Steph J's American Diva at Pax (Diva), Pax' Niobe (Bee) and Pax' Nunc Dimittis (Mitty) who are three promising brindle bitches.

This is a progressing work and I’m busy learning how to handle it. My mentor is Don Koonce, of Kingwood, a multi-talented guy; his page is directly linked to this index page. He's a terrific teacher and I'm a student of moderate capability. Do check back and see what new pages are being produced. This is planned to be an evolving work.

Audrey