First came the dogs’ balding – leathery pink patches on otherwise glossy fur coats. The veterinarian told Shenice Copenhaver it was genetic. But it wasn’t long before one of the hairless puppies began stealing blankets to burrow beneath furniture and hide for long stretches. Around the same time, in the summer of 2022, she first heard the noise: a deep, mechanical howl that becomes shrill closer to the facility. Copenhaver didn’t know it then, but bitcoin miners had come to town. Less than a mile away from her home in east Texas, a cryptocurrency mining facility was rumbling to life....